Achromatic
by MagellanGuillaume-3
Summary: You guys know the Statute of Secrecy: muggles absolutely cannot know about magic. So, why do all of you think that those books are factually correct? Well, anyway, they're not. They're uttered changed so nothing would be revealed. I, Magellan Guillaume the Third, am here to rectify that. This is the true story of the legendary Achromatic Mage, Harry Potter. [AU. OP HP. HP/LL NL/SB]
1. Chapter 1: Setting the Scene

There is something that you need to know. Something that you really, really need to know. What is it you ask? Oh, only that your entire life and everything that you thought you knew about Harry Potter is completely, utterly, and totally wrong. Well, mostly.

Harry's parents were indeed killed by Voldemort. He did indeed repel the Killing Curse, destroying Voldemort's body, and Voldemort would eventually return. He was indeed dumped on his aunt's doorstep with just a letter as justification. But almost all of the stuff besides that? Unfortunately, it's generally untrue. Merely a version of the events that was altered until it was far enough from the actual truth to be shown to the Muggle public.

I am Magellan Guillaume the Third, and I want to tell you what really happened that fateful November first of 1981.

It all began the day after he was dumped. His aunt, Petunia Dursley, opened the door early that morning to let in some fresh air and get rid of the stale atmosphere in the house, then stepped out to retrieve the morning news. Instead of seeing the usual lone paper on her doorstep though, she found herself staring at a squirming bundle of cloth. A cloth that she recognized as the little blanket her only nephew had with him at all times. She reached down with shaking hands and picked the bundle up, brushing the cloth aside as she did so, which left her staring down at the face of the very nephew to whom the blanket belonged. A letter fluttered down from the loose cloth, and Petunia picked it up very slowly, dreading what she knew the letter would say.

She made her way back into the house, the bundle gently cradled in one arm and the letter held in her other hand. She placed the letter onto the kitchen table before laying her nephew down on the couch and sitting down in front of the letter, staring silently at the object before her, trying to convince herself to open it, that it was better to just get it over with. Eventually, she finally managed to make herself reach out, pick it up, and open it. As soon as she started reading, her eyes filled with tears and a sob escaped her lips.

Ten minutes later, her husband, Vernon Dursley, came into the kitchen to see his beloved wife sitting at the table crying and clutching a letter. "Petunia! What's happened, dear?" he asked her frantically, rushing up to her and rubbing little circles onto her back.

"M-my sister and her husband were killed last night!" Petunia bawled, "That insane guy I was telling you about invaded their house and murdered them!" Vernon inhaled sharply at this bit of news, then sank down into a chair beside her.

"Petunia, darling, might I have a look at that letter?" he asked gently. He took it from her hand when she gave a weak nod and read it over himself, his face growing grimmer and sadder with every line. When he finished he tossed the letter aside onto the table and leaned back, letting out a long, low, groan as he did so. "Alright," he muttered to himself, "Alright fine. This is okay. It's just another kid. We'll be fine. We already have a kid, what's one more going to do? Nothing, that's what. Yeah, we'll be fine. Fine, fine, fine." He continued like this, trying and failing to wrap his mind around the fact that his sibling-in-laws, who they visited once a month and whose child they had seen being born, were dead and that that very child was now in their care.

About an hour later, the two adults managed to drag themselves out of their stupor and go about their daily businesses, albeit more mechanically and stiffly than usual, and by the time they had eaten dinner and put the children to bed, they had calmed down enough to think things through a bit more.

"Vernon, what do you think we should do?" Petunia asked. Vernon sighed and looked out the window as if he might find an answer hanging from the blinds.

"I honestly don't know," he finally said, "We have to keep him of course, since you and I both know that we're his only remaining relatives. I'm not worried about the legal side, since it's very straightforward. I'm not worried about finances either; my career is going well and is completely stable. What I'm really worried about is the magic. You know some of course, but you only made up with her a few years ago, so actually raising a magical child might be hard." Petunia nodded, biting her lip as she tried to think of a solution to their dilemma.

"Oh!" she suddenly gasped, "I know! Lily once introduced me to a couple friends of hers, a Pandora Lovegood and Alice Longbottom. Perhaps they could give us some advice! I think I still have their mailing addresses written down somewhere…" Vernon breathed a sigh of relief, then smiled at his wife.

"You know, I really do appreciate you," he told his wife, reaching over the table to pat her on the hand. Suddenly, he was struck by an idea, saying, "Oh! Marge asked to come over next Saturday-" at this point Petunia made a face and Vernon nodded in agreement- "but, since I haven't replied yet, if we invite those two ladies over, we might be able to convince her not to come!"

With this, the two of them doubled their efforts to quickly find and invite the women for dinner, and as soon as they had the letter written out, Vernon called his sister to say that "unfortunately, other plans had already been set for that night, so she couldn't come over," before hanging up in the middle of her screaming, cursing tirade.

Suddenly, Dudley woke up crying, causing Harry to wake up crying as well, so the two adults ran toward their children's bedroom to try to comfort them.

The next Saturday, at six-thirty sharp, the doorbell rang. The two Dursleys, who had been waiting nervously all day, looked at each other and, by silent agreement, stood and opened the door together.

"Petunia! Oh, it was so exciting, being in the Muggle world for the first time in so long! I hardly knew what to do! How are you?" a blonde woman crowed, stepping through the door and throwing her arms around the woman. The two women immediately started talking animatedly, discussing trivialities as the guest removed her coat. The other lady, a short woman with brown hair and bright eyes walked over the threshold and held out her hand.

"I'm Alice Longbottom. You must be Vernon Dursley," she introduced. Vernon smiled friendlily at her and nodded.

"I am. Here, let me take your coat," he offered, accepting the garment from the woman's hand and hanging it on the nearby coat rack, calmly continuing, "So, if you are Alice, then I suppose that would make her Pandora?" Alice nodded before glancing amusedly at the two ladies who were still chattering away.

"Now, now dear," Vernon called, a note of humor entering his voice, "Don't stand there too long, or else Pandora there will have to put her jacket back on." Alice snickered a little, and the two ladies, who were still standing in front of the open door, blushed. Petunia led her friend away from the threshold, playfully slapping her husband on the arm as she did, then closed the door and gave Alice a hug. Vernon turned to his other guest, whom, he suddenly realized, was heavily pregnant.

"Oh! How rude of me, please, take a seat," he gasped, gesturing at an armchair in the neighboring living room. Pandora took it gratefully, and Vernon sat down on the loveseat nearby. Soon, Petunia and Alice joined them, with Petunia taking a seat next to Vernon and Alice taking the armchair next to Pandora. Once they all got comfortable, Pandora and Alice smiled warmly and turned toward the couple.

"I suppose we should properly introduce ourselves?" Alice began, "I'm Alice Longbottom, an Auror, which is similar to your Muggle Police. I'm a pyromancer with a slight affinity for lightning." Alice paused and glanced at the two Muggles. "You know what that means right?" Petunia and Vernon nodded.

"Yeah, James and Lily explained it to us," Petunia said, "There are eight general categories of magic, labeled by color, and each corresponding to a specific element. Red is fire, heat, and destruction; orange is change, transitions, and cycles; yellow is earth, stability, and fertility; green is nature, growth, and creation; blue is water, coldness, and freedom; purple is conflict, protection, and vulnerability; white is time, light, and life; and black is space, darkness, and death. Depending on what element you are attuned to, you can use that element freely. You can use elements beside your own as well, but only by using a wand as a conduit for your magic, and only in relatively limited ways. However, there are rare existences who are attuned to multiple magics." Alice nodded happily and sat up straighter to continue her explanation.

"Yeah! I'm a Red Mage, and since mine is such an inherently damaging attribute, I suppose it's no surprise what my occupation is. I am married to a wonderful man named Frank Longbottom, and I have a beautiful baby boy named Neville, who is a little over fifteen months old. My husband couldn't come tonight because he needed to take care of our son, but he is also an auror and a pyromancer, though he leans more toward manipulation of fire, while I'm better at conjuring it." Upon finishing, she flicked her wrist and conjured a floating ball of flame over her head, which she extinguished a few seconds later.

"I guess it's my turn now," Pandora said cheerily, "I'm Pandora Lovegood. I work in the Department of Mysteries, so I'm called an Unspeakable. I hope you'll understand when I say I cannot speak about my work." Everyone laughed at her joke, and then she continued, "Anyway, suffice to say that I am in the research and development field. I am a technomancer, an Orange Mage, so I can control and affect most types of technology, both magical and Muggle. For example, the magical world has a device called a Sneakoscope, which reacts to danger and secret plans against its owner. I can change this with a single touch, making it detect something else, or changing its range, and so on. Similarly, if given a Muggle television remote, I can touch it and be able to make it control literally anything else." To demonstrate, she picked up the VCR remote on the table, closed her eyes in concentration, and then pointed it at a painting on the wall. With a press of a button, the portrait floated up, ran a few laps around the room, then returned to its spot on the wall. After restoring the original function of the remote and putting it back on the table, she finished her introduction. "Anyway, I am married to a man named Xenophilius Lovegood, a Potions Master. He is a Venomancer, a Purple Mage, a rare talent enabling him to control poisons and venoms, as well as understand them completely. Thus, he has single handedly discovered about half of the most commonly used antivenoms in Europe. Both of us live fairly far from any Muggles, so getting here was quite the journey! I am carrying his child, a girl whom we have decided to name either Sol or Luna, depending on when she is born," she finished, her voice filled with pride when describing her husband and his accomplishments. Now, it was time for Petunia and Vernon to introduce themselves.

"Good evening, everyone! I'm Vernon Dursley," Vernon introduced jovially, "I'm afraid I'm not as interesting as you guys are. I'm just a manager and salesman at a company called Grunnings, which sells a common type of construction equipment called a drill. I'm still at the beginning of my career, but my prospects are good and my path is clear, so my job is pretty secure. As for family, Petunia and I have a lovely two-year-old boy we named Dudley." Petunia picked up the thread seamlessly.

"I'm Petunia Dursley, sister of Lily Potter. I am still looking into finding a job, but at the moment it's pretty hard since I have a child and the job market isn't amazing." She shrugged indifferently, but Pandora knit her eyebrows.

"Hmm… How are you at writing and editing?" she asked. Petunia raised her eyebrows in surprise, but answered the question.

"Decent, I suppose? I was the Chief Editor of my school newspaper in Uni, and I have written a couple essays about botany and gardening that went into our district bulletin. Why?" she asked. Pandora smiled brightly and stuck her hand out.

"Then I would like to hire you as assistant editor of the Quibbler!" she declared, "My husband likes journalism, so he started a magazine about potions and magical creatures. He was looking for some editors, and you fit the bill perfectly! All you have to do is read over any articles submitted and occasionally revise some pieces from my husband. You can even have your own column on whatever you want! You can just stay at home, write a few articles, read a few articles, and earn some money." Petunia smiled broadly and laughed.

"I'll think about it," she decided. Suddenly, she sobered up. "Unfortunately, this conversation," she sighed, "as lovely as it is, isn't why I invited you over. We need some advice."

The two women looked surprised for a second, then shook it off and smiled encouragingly at Petunia. Alice nodded, signalling for Petunia to continue.

"We have custody of Harry Potter, and we need advice on how to raise him."

The two visitors almost fell out of their chairs.

"W-well, that's quite the reducto you've cast," Alice managed to mutter, putting a hand on her forehead. Upon seeing Petunia and Vernon's confused looks, she just smiled weakly, saying, "It's a wizarding saying. I think in your terms it would be… a dropped bomb?" The two non-magicals nodded in understanding and sympathy, and Petunia leaned over to pat Pandora on the back.

"You alright?" she asked, "I'm sorry. The shock can't be that great for the baby."

"Oh, I'll be fine," the woman sighed, "but that's really not the point right now, is it? I have a lot of questions. When did you get him? Who gave him to you? Who else knows? Why? Are you sure you want to keep him?" Petunia laughed and Vernon put his hands up, putting a stop to the endless string of questions.

"Alright, alright! I'll explain!" she laughed, "Okay, so. I received Harry on November first, by finding him on my doorstep with a letter tucked into his blanket. The letter explained that Lily and James are dead, and that since we are his last remaining blood relatives, we would have custody of him. We've only told the old Squib Kneazle breeder who lives down the street, named Mrs. Figg, who was apparently put there to watch over us. Still, it's hard to believe that us, who were all but enemies of them until a couple years ago, were first in line for custody!" At this point, Vernon suddenly stiffened and cleared his throat to break in.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I just remembered something. Harry has a godfather, a Sirius Black. According to the legal process, shouldn't he be the one who receives him?" he asked. Alice and Pandora grimaced and curled their lips with contempt and anger.

"The bastard betrayed James and Lily! He told the Dark Lord where they lived, then killed Peter Pettigrew plus a dozen Muggles by blowing up an alley," Alice growled. Vernon just stared at them confused, shaking his head.

"That's not possible. Sirius Black wasn't their secret keeper," he told them slowly. The two women gasped with shock.

"Wh-what?!" Pandora breathed, "If that's so, then who IS their secret keeper?" Petunia spoke at this time with a look of dawning comprehension.

"Pettigrew was, they had him tell us where they lived since they thought that no one would think to ask a mere Muggle sister that few even knew existed. I think I know what happened," she said, "I'm pretty sure that Pettigrew was the traitor, and when Black went out to catch him, Pettigrew caused an explosion and escaped."

"But- no- wait- the finger!" Alice stammered, "The only trace of Pettigrew that was left was a single finger!" Vernon rolled his eyes.

"That should have made you suspicious immediately. Think about it; I've seen your duels. A finger would have been the first thing to be destroyed in an explosion, especially one from right in front him. The only way a finger would be left behind is if the explosion was from behind him. Plus, no other chunks of him? Just a single finger? The only way that could work is if the rest were somehow utterly obliterated, and if that were the case then Sirius himself could never survive that kind of energy in quarters as close as inside an alley." With every consecutive point made, Alice and Pandora's eyes grew wider and wider, and when Vernon finished, the two of them buried their faces in their hands.

"I'm a failure as an Auror!" "I'm a failure as an Unspeakable!" Alice and Pandora cried out simultaneously. Petunia stood up and went over to pat them on the backs, throwing a mildly disapproving look at Vernon, who cast a sheepish and apologetic look back before opening up his mouth to speak again.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I was rather rude with those statements, and you didn't deserve such harsh words," Vernon apologized, "Your friends had just died, and I shouldn't have expected you to be able to approach the matter with pure logic. Anyway, we need to get Mr. Black out of jail and get everyone set on the right track, so chin up! High ho, and away we go!" With the last sentence, the two women sitting in front of him looked up and smiled a little, then stood up.

"Yes, we really must rush," Alice declared briskly, "Sirius is scheduled to be on the morning prison bus, so if we have any chance of getting him out in a timely manner, we had better go now. Just let me contact my husband and mother-in-law." She stepped away and pulled what looked like a pocket watch out of her purse, then split it into two circles, holding one to her ear and one in front of her mouth. It was clearly some kind of communication device.

It was now that the two toddlers in the house decided to make their presence known by starting to cry. Petunia a little squeak of surprise, then hurried into the next room, where the two babies had been napping in a pair of cribs. She picked them up and gently rocked them, and before too long they calmed down again. Pandora slowly walked in, soon followed by Alice.

"So, this is your child? Dudley?" Pandora asked, gesturing to one of the babies in her arms. Petunia nodded and carefully gave her new friend her own child, then gave her other friend her famous nephew. The two women cooed and and giggled at the wiggling, bright-eyed babies in their arms until suddenly there came a metallic ringing noise and Alice quickly gave Dudley back to Petunia and pulled the metal discs out of her bag.

"Hello? You're at the Ministry already? Okay, we'll be along soon," she said. She then put the contraption away and beckoned to the others. "C'mon, we gotta hurry. The Ministry closes access for the general public at eight, so we need to go now."

"Okay, let me just go fetch Mrs. Figg," she said, grabbing the phone off the kitchen counter and punching a few numbers in. A moment later, Mrs. Figg picked up the phone. "Hello? Arabella? Would you mind coming over for a little while to watch the babies? I'm sorry for the late notice," Petunia asked.

"Oh not at all!" she replied, "I love little Duddikins, and I would have the company of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived! Oh, I was so surprised when-"

"Bella, I'm sorry to interrupt but I do need to go," Petunia cut in.

"Oh! Yes, I apologize. I'll be over in a second."

"Lovely. The key's under the bush as usual."

With that, they could leave, and did just that. Within ten minutes, the four of them had apparated their way into the Ministry and were heading for one of the lifts.

"Oh hey, I forgot to ask, but what were those metal discs?" Vernon asked, "I don't think I've ever seen one of them before, and I've met more wizards than you might think." Alice just smiled at them and nodded toward Pandora.

"It's her invention, called the Conversircles. It's still in the testing phase, and rather difficult to use since you have to power it yourself. If I were a weaker witch, I might not have been able to use it at all, and even as it is I still can't hold conversations longer than thirty seconds. Due to these power issues and the fact that they were only developed two weeks ago, they haven't hit the public yet," she explained. Pandora just blushed and pushed Alice playfully.

"Stop it! You make it sound like I did it all by myself. I had help!" she insisted.

"Yeah, sure, a single assistant who handed you water and books. This is your accomplishment," Alice retorted.

"No! Director Croaker helped too!"

"He gave you two sentences of advice."

"And a book."

"Okay fine, and a book. Look, you're the best technomancer the Department of Mysteries has seen in at least a decade or two."

At this point, Vernon and Petunia burst out laughing. The two witches glanced at their companions, then at each other, and started laughing as well. The person at the front desk started to speak, but Alice just flashed her badge and stuck her hand into a little recess on the wall, which proceeded to glow briefly before dinging. The man nodded them through, and they stepped into a lift and went down to the DMLE floor. Once there, Alice led them down a hall, through a door labeled AUROR HEADQUARTERS, then to the doors at the other end of the room labeled HEAD AUROR, where she pulled out her badge and pushed it into a small hole near the door knob, causing the doors to unlock. Pushing them open, she led the whole group into the office, grabbing her badge from its new location on the tray beside the entrance.

"Good evening, Head Auror Bones. How do you do?" Alice greeted cheerfully as she walked through the door, smiling at her husband, who was sitting across from the head of the Auror division. He gave a happy smile back at her and stood up to introduce himself to the two Muggles in the room, who looked rather lost and afraid.

"Hey-o! I'm Frank, Alice's husband. You must be Vernon and Petunia Dursley. Any relationship to Nicholas Dursley?" he asked, holding his hand out to shake.

"Uh, y-yes. He was my great-great-grandfather," Vernon stammered, shaking his hand, "I looked him up when James asked me the same question and then told me that he was a squib." Frank smiled and clasped Vernon's shoulder.

"Then you are officially a family friend! Anyway, Alice told me a few things about the situation over the Conversircles, but I'd like to know some details," he said. Vernon and Petunia nodded and sat down to tell their story all over again.

"... so, in summary, based on the lack of remains and the fact that we literally had James and Lily tell us that Pettigrew is the secret keeper, we believe Sirius Black to have been framed, which led to us being the ones who would legally obtain custody of Harry Potter," Petunia finished. There was a long silence, filled with grim and enlightened looks, and then a long, loud sigh as Madam Bones leaned back in her chair.

"Well, this changes a lot, to say the least. Well! At least this means that I'm right. Come, we need to take this to the Head of the DMLE," she declared. With that, the six person strong group trooped along out of the Auror division and down the hall to the doors labeled HEAD OF DMLE. Madam Bones, who was leading the group, knocked on the door, waited for permission to enter, and then did so, leading the whole group in behind her.

"Hello there Director Marchbanks. How's your sister holding up?" she asked respectfully. The man sitting there raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly distractedly.

"She's doing well. Still complaining about declining Charms grades and that the NEWTs need to be updated," he told her, glancing inquisitively at the other five people standing behind her.

"That's good," Madam Bones sighed, casually sitting down across from her boss, "Anyway, now that the pleasantries are over, let's get down to business. There is new evidence that suggests that Sirius Black is innocent, and it's significantly stronger than the evidence that incriminates him."

Director Gregory Marchbanks had been the Director of the DMLE for over forty years. Before that, he had another forty years of being a Wizarding Barrister under his belt. He was the younger brother of the famously formidable Griselda Marchbanks, Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority. He could reasonably say that not much fazed him.

This did. Oh, Merlin, it certainly did.

Director Marchbanks stared at Madam Bones for a full minute, then leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for another minute. Then, he sat up, looked seriously at Madam Bones, opened his mouth to speak, and promptly fell face down on his desk.

"Oh dear," Pandora sighed, "He fainted. You gave him a rather bad shock, Madam Bones!" She shook head and glanced around the room, saying, "I don't suppose any of you happen to have some smelling salts on you? I'd use Rennervate, but he's a bit too old to handle the stress." Petunia timidly raised her hand.

"Um, I do," she squeaked, pulling a small case of capsules out of her purse, "My next door neighbor has very low blood pressure, so she faints a lot. We meet for tea often, so I carry them around out of habit." Pandora took them from her with a grateful smile, then turned to the old man flopped over on the desk and cracked open an ampoule, waving it slowly around under Director Marchbank's nose. With a loud snort and a painful-sounding cough, he jerked up and shook his head. He coughed again, looked around in confusion, then almost choked, which launched a coughing fit. Eventually, he calmed down enough to look up at the group in front of him, who were patiently waiting for him to gather himself, and spoke.

"By Merlin's busted, chitinous, hairy left buggered testicle, you bloody well have to be kidding me. Are we on the same page here?! Are you talking about Sirius Black, the man who the ENTIRE nation of Britain believes to be a traitorous, insane, mass murdering Death Eater spy, the man who we all thought betrayed not only the whole Wizarding World in general, but also the icons of the war against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the heirs to the largest fortune Europe, the best Auror and Charms Mistress in decades, and Black's own best friends, James and Lily Potter? Not to mention Healer-In-Training Pettigrew, who chased after him to stop him and was killed for his efforts? You say he is INNOCENT?" he shouted in a single breath, disbelief and fear dripping from his every word.

Madam Bones tutted, fixing the man with a look of disappointment. "You know," she said, a little malice tinging her tone, "If you had just let me investigate properly like I'd wanted to, you wouldn't be so surprised and angry." At this statement, Director Marchbanks had the decency to look a little sheepish.

He leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh. After a long moment, he grunted and looked back at them with tired eyes. "Let me see this evidence of yours," he requested quietly. Alice Longbottom nodded silently, gesturing to the Dursleys. They stepped forward and, by mutual agreement, Petunia started first.

"Hello Director Marchbanks, I'm Petunia Dursley, Lily's sister. I can give you an eyewitness account showing that Peter Pettigrew is the Potter secret keeper. Do you have a… what was it called, Vernon? A Pan-Sieve?" Her husband shook his head helplessly, but Pandora nodded.

"I have a Pensieve. All Unspeakables are required to carry one at all times to prevent people from discovering secret information through Legilimency or similar tactics," she explained, pulling a small stone pot from her purse, setting it on the desk, and pressing some runes on it. The pot expanded into the usual stone basin, and Pandora quickly emptied the memories inside into a set of small glass bottles. When she was done, she nodded to the Dursleys, who just looked expectantly back. After a second, Pandora, Frank, and Alice burst out laughing while Director Marchbanks just stared at them confused.

"Here, allow me. I forgot that you guys were Muggles. Do you know the mental procedure?" Frank asked, drawing his wand. The two non-magicals nodded and closed their eyes to focus. A moment later, Vernon's memory were floating around in the Pensieve on the table. Everyone present glanced at each other, then extended their hands and entered the Pensieve together.

The seven people found themselves standing in a well-lit living room which some recognized as the Dursley's. For the benefit of the rest, Petunia said, "My living room."

Suddenly, there came a knock at the front door, and the group watched as Memory-Petunia walked out of the next room to open the door. In walked a group of five people.

All of the virtual visitors choked up at the sight of a healthy, living, and happy James and Lily Potter. Sirius Black, then Peter Pettigrew, and finally Remus Lupin, followed them in. The four wizards and one witch were warmly welcomed, and as the seven invisible apparitions watched the seven people in the memory laugh and speak animatedly, there wasn't a single dry eye in the group. There also wasn't a single person who didn't notice that Peter Pettigrew was sweating and nervously fidgeting. Memory-Petunia even asked him what was wrong, only to be dismissed with a "N-nothing!"

Before too long, everyone was in the living room chatting and drinking tea. James Potter drained the last few drops of Earl Grey from his cup before setting it down on its saucer, then placing both on the coffee table in front of him. He grew serious and leaned forward to look the two Muggles in the eye.

"We've come here for two purposes. The first we've already accomplished: we wanted to catch up with you guys. The second one, though, is far more serious," he warned, "it concerns the safety of not only us, but you yourself as well. Do you want to talk about it?" Vernon and Petunia just stared at him before scoffing with derision.

"What kind of question is that? Of course we want to know! We're family, you pudding brained idiot!" Memory-Petunia declared. The invisible Petunia smiled sadly, shaking her head.

"I was proud of that insult. In hindsight, it wasn't that good, was it?" she whispered.

There was no response except for an absent minded "that's nice, dear," from Director Marchbanks. Everyone was too involved in listening to James' response.

"Okay. I'll tell you then," Memory-James muttered, seemingly more to himself than to anyone else, "Alright. So. The essence is this: the house that Lily and I have been living in has been placed under a charm called the Fidelius. This means that people literally cannot even conceive of the location of it. All knowledge of its existence has been wiped from human knowledge. But, of course, if absolutely no one knows about something under the Fidelius, it would be completely useless, so there are four entities that will know about it. One: the person who the charm directly affects. In this case, it is me and Lily. Two: a person called the Secret Keeper. This person is the only one who can spread knowledge of the subject of the Fidelius. In this case, it is Peter here." At this point, James paused to get another cup of tea and take a sip. The invisible visitors took this opportunity to start cheering madly. When James started speaking again though, they all quieted to continue listening.

"I know what you're thinking. You thought I would have chosen Sirius right?" James continued, "Well, that is exactly why we didn't choose him. It is too obvious. Remus is no good since his lying capabilities are worse than his potion brewing skills, which is to say they are nonexistent. Thus, Peter is the best choice. Plus! Dumbledore himself recommended that we have him be the Keeper! Anyway, yeah. The second person is the Secret Keeper, Peter. The third entity is anyone that the Secret Keeper gives the Secret to. This will soon include you. The last entity, and perhaps the most important one, is the caster of the charm. This person is incredibly crucial, since he or she will have absolute control over the spell, as well as have all the abilities that the Secret Keeper has. They can end the charm at any time, can change the Secret Keeper at will, can give the Secret to others, and more. On top of that, they must be very strong magically, since it is an extremely difficult charm to cast. So, I think it is obvious that, for this part, we chose Dumbledore." Gasps and shouts came from the wizards in the invisible group, causing Vernon and Petunia to look at them in confusion. Frank flicked his wand, "pausing" the memory, and tried to explain.

"Well, y'see, for several days after the Potters and Voldemort were gotten rid of, the Ministry was in chaos," he began, "Dumbledore was there every single day, and knew everything that was going on, including Sirius Black's apparent betrayal. In fact, he definitely knew, given that I was the one to tell him and show him Black's cell!" He grimaced, the muscles in his jaw working to such an extent that everyone considered it a miracle that his teeth didn't crack. A glance at the Muggles' confused expression though told them that they did not fully understand yet, so Alice decided to carry on the explanation.

"In case you don't know, Dumbledore is a very powerful and influential person in our society. He is the most powerful wizard alive right now, and he is well over a century in age, not to mention the vanquisher of Grindelwald, who was essentially a magical Hitler. He is a political juggernaut, magically unrivaled, and universally respected and loved. He has a hand in every major thing to happen in the last fifty years," she explained, "Anyway, the essence of what my husband and I are trying to say is that Dumbledore definitely knew that Black was accused of being the traitorous Secret Keeper of the Potters." She could almost see the gears turning and the dots starting to connect in their heads. "And he also knew that Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper since he was the one to cast the spell in the first place." The last few ideas finally coalesced, and looks of horror and disbelief filled their faces. "So Dumbledore was in the perfect position to free Sirius, and could have done so literally within minutes, but did not. It reeks of something suspicious." Everyone around frowned deeply, and silence reigned for several seconds. Finally, Director Marchbanks broke their reverie with a long sigh.

"We will have to discuss this later. Let us finish watching this memory, and see if there's any more terrible revelations we will have to deal with," he suggested. There was a murmur of consent, and Frank unpaused the memory.

At this point, Peter Pettigrew was about to tell Petunia and Vernon the Secret. "Okay, so, James and Lily Potter live at 1031 Riddle Way, Godric's Hollow." Petunia and Vernon's eyes clouded over briefly before clearing again, and the two of them shook their heads briskly before grinning at their friends and family.

"Gotta love the effect magic has on us Muggles," Petunia laughed, "It's awfully tingly." James just smirked and leaned back in his chair.

"Alright! Any questions you two?" he asked. Vernon seemed to suddenly think of something, and piped up.

"What will happen if Peter gets captured and tortured for the Secret? Will you know?" he asked. Jame just smiled conspiratorially and leaned forward.

"Okay, what I'm about to tell you is a fairly closely guarded secret," he told them, "We four guys are all secretly Animagi, which means that we have animal forms. Most of us are in the middle of registering ourselves with the Ministry, but Peter will not so no one will know about that particular skill. His form is that of a rat, which is very good for sneaking around and, of course, escaping capture. We even have a contingency plan for when he must escape: he will go the pet store near Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor in Diagon Alley, and someone will go find him as soon as possible. No one really knows about it, and few people take rats as pets anyway, so we can fetch him easily enough." Memory-Petunia and Vernon just nodded, but the invisible group burst into cheers.

"We found the rat!" Madam Bones cried. The memory ended as they celebrated, and they all came out of the Pensieve whooping and hollering. Even old Director Marchbanks was doing a little jig around his office.

"I'm going to call an emergency Wizengamot session for the morning," Marchbanks declared. Everyone gave their total support, and Bones rubbed her hands together gleefully.

"I know of the pet store that they talked about," Pandora offered, "The owner is my second cousin. I think he's still open; he likes to keep late hours on weekends."

"Then off we go!" Director Bones shouted, running out of the door. Everyone except Director Marchbanks followed her out, with the old man already starting to fill out paperwork and make the necessary fire-calls in order to call an emergency session of the Wizengamot.

The other six were soon standing at the Apparition Point in Diagon Alley nearest to Fortescue's. The shops were closing all around them, but several proprietors still stepped out of their stores to say hi and find out what was going on.

"Hello Madam Bones. What brings you here this fine evening?" Fortescue asked, looking for all his life like he thought they would say that they wanted a round of fudge sundaes. Bones just shook her head.

"Sorry, no time for small talk. We're on official business," she declared, leading the group away. Pandora pointed out the pet shop on an off-shooting lane, and as she predicted the lights were still on and the door slightly ajar.

The group of them trooped on in, all of them waving at the owner, who was carrying a box out of a back room. He glanced over at them and flashed them a smile.

"Hello! It's nice to see you again Pandora. How can I help you guys?" he asked, putting the box down and stepping out from behind the counter.

"Hello Albert. We just want to know if you got any new pets recently," Pandora told him, "More specifically, we need to know if a rat came in at any point in the last week." Albert just shrugged.

"Sure, I got three. They're right over here," he said, leading them over to a corner of his shop. There stood a shelf with a row of cages on it and with rats in the cages. Most of them, upon seeing them coming, came forward a bit, noses wiggling and beady eyes looking out at them. One of them, though, squeaked loudly at the sight of them and cowered in the far corner of its cage. This did not escape the notice of Madam Bones, who immediately pointed at that particular animal.

"Might I see that one please?" she requested. Albert nodded and took the cage down, carrying it to the front counter, where he opened the door to the cage and expertly captured the struggling rat.

"Here you are, ma'am. He's a feisty one, to be sure, and must have gotten into a lot of fights. Look, he's missing a toe right there!" he described, pointing at the front right paw of the rat. Madam Bones just smiled dangerously before flicking her wand at the rat, levitating it in front of her face.

"Let's take this outside," she almost snarled, walking toward the door. Everyone dutifully followed, including one very confused shopkeeper.

Once on the street, she threw the rat to the ground and, with a flick of her wrist, the concrete around it rose up several feet, trapping it in a small circle. "Ready immobilizers," she commanded before drawing her wand. Alice and Frank copied her, aiming their own wands at the creature on the ground.

"Well, Peter, looks like you won't be as lucky as you had imagined," Madam Bones smirked, "After all, the hardest thing left to do is remove your animagus transfiguration." The rat just squeaked in a distinctly terrified fashion. Madam Bones took a deep breath, slowly raised her wand, and then spoke with an authority and power so great, everyone's magic flared up in response.

"Arcanum Finite Maximus!" she intoned, pointing her wand at the rat on the ground. It started to glow brighter and brighter, until finally, in a blazing display of multicolored sparks, a man flew out of the cloud of light and collapsed heavily on the ground. Alice and Frank reacted before the man could even lift a finger.

"Locomotor Mortis!" "Stupefy!"

The two spells hit the man in the side and he suddenly stiffened before lying still. Madam Bones approached the man and flipped him over with a kick, then smirked with satisfaction as she found herself staring at Peter Pettigrew.

"Well, well, well. The rat is caught!" she cackled. The others glanced at each other before shrugging and starting to conjure ropes, reading Pettigrew his rights, and discussing what to do with him. Vernon and Petunia, left with nothing to do, decided to talk to the shocked owner who was standing in the door of his shop.

"Hello Albert," Vernon said quietly, "How are you holding up?" Albert just let out a strained chuckle.

"Not too great," he replied, "but thank you for asking." Vernon just clasped the man on the shoulder and gave him a bracing smile, and Albert started to turn around to go back into his store.

"Wait a second," Petunia interjected, "I have a question for you."

"Alright," Albert sighed, turning back toward her, "fire away."

"I know that witches and wizards often have… familiars, I think? How does that work?"

"Oh, that's simple. A familiar is an animal companion that the wizard forms a deep connection with, allowing them to communicate on a basic level and slightly heightening both of their abilities. They can only have one in a lifetime. A familiar can be any animal, but they are often just common ones like cats, dogs, or owls.

"It usually takes about a year or so to form a bond deep enough to become a familiar bond, so many people think it has to be a huge decision. Really, it doesn't have to be, since there honestly is no right or wrong choice. Many end up just becoming familiars with their housepets.

"Of course, some people also end up with very rare familiars. For one, Dumbledore is supposed to have a Phoenix as a familiar, and I have met a man with a Thestral familiar! Sometimes, it's just all about luck."

At this point, Madam Bones called them over since everyone was leaving, so the Dursleys thanked Albert and hurried back to their friends.

"Ready? Grab this rope. We're going through Portkey to the Ministry lockup chambers," Bones explained, "I want to bypass as much red tape as possible. Director Marchbanks, would you please take care of the paperwork and the Emergency Session?" Marchbanks nodded sharply, and Bones smiled before calling out the Portkey activation phrase.

The group of them arrived to a scene of total chaos. Aurors and hit wizards were running everywhere, and all of the activity seemed to be centered around a group of four people. Madam Bones shouted above the din.

"What in Merlin's blue balls is going on in here?!" she demanded. Activity around them slowed, and Alastor Moody limped out of the crowd, still on crutches since his leg injury was still relatively recent.

"We have some good news and some bad news," he declared, "Put simply, these four attacked the Longbottom home in Manchester, setting off alarms. Dowager Lady Longbottom was taking care of Neville at the Longbottom Manor, so they were safe. When these four realized that the house was empty, they were apparently angry and started to destroy the property, giving us time to respond. We were able to catch them, but the house and everything around it was destroyed with Fiendfyre. But, we now have Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange and Bartemius Crouch Junior." There was yet another uproar, and this time the people in the newly arrived group were part of it.

Suddenly, people started to notice the person that Amelia Bones had floating behind her and screams rang out.

"How the bloody buggering hell do you have Peter Pettigrew floating behind you? I thought he was dead!" Moody shouted. Bones smiled victoriously.

"Simple. Black wasn't the traitor, Pettigrew was!"

The volume in the chamber doubled. The Dursleys shook their heads. This night was turning out to be a lot more exciting than they expected.

After an hour, the details were wrought out, the Emergency Wizengamot session put on high priority due to the appearance of not one major criminal but five, and everyone satisfied. Vernon and Petunia Dursley went to sleep that night slightly confused, but filled with a sense of fulfilment that they couldn't quite explain.

They didn't realize just how important that night was, not for several years.


	2. Chapter 2: Bits of Background

Four years passed in a blur. Sirius Black was easily freed and Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Barty Junior were all thrown in prison. Sirius fell into his godfather role with a passion, spoiling little Harry while also making sure to teach him everything the heir to a magical family should know. He dated a bit, but never settled.

The Dursleys were thoroughly indoctrinated into the wizarding world and managed to obtain a certain legal status that put them at roughly the level of a squib, colloquially dubbed the "Honorary Squib", due to their blood relationships to wizards, thus giving them the ability to get magical benefits like a connection to the Floo system, the ability to own magical pets, and so on. Petunia got a job with the Lovegoods writing about gardening and reviewing applications submitted by anyone hoping for a job.

The Longbottoms, Lovegoods, and Bones all became close friends with the Dursleys, and their children grew up as close as siblings. Petunia had learned her lesson from her childhood, and made sure that Dudley knew right from the start that, even though Harry had magic, Harry was not inherently better than Dudley. "After all," she would say, "You're older than him, bigger and stronger than him, and will know more science and math and history than he will. Why be jealous, when you have all these?" In this way, the two boys grew up as brothers.

Now it was a few weeks before Harry and Dudley would start their first year of school. Petunia was rushing around everywhere, fretting about if they had the right books and materials, if they had enough paper and pencils, if their little backpacks were too big for them, when their floo flared to life and the Longbottoms came through. They watched Petunia, who hadn't noticed their arrival yet, run around for a few seconds before Alice finally interjecting.

"Petunia, what in Merlin's name has gotten you in such a terrific twist?" she asked laughingly. Petunia whirled around and stared at them for a long second before deflating.

"Oh! I was so worried about the boys starting primary school that I forgot that you were coming over today. I just don't feel ready to send them to school yet!" she sighed as she sat down in an armchair. When she only got confused looks from Frank and Alice, she raised an eyebrow.

"Um? What do you mean primary school?" Frank asked, nudging Neville toward Harry and Dudley, who were peeking in from the next room. Petunia gestured for them to sit.

"It's a Muggle practice," she explained, "Instead of teaching your child everything by yourself, you send them to a school. There, they will learn to read and write, do arithmetic, study history, that kind of stuff. I assume you only do homeschooling in the wizarding world?"

"Yes, it's always either homeschooling or tutoring. How does this primary school of yours work?" Alice asked, leaning forward.

"Well, it consists of six years, each building on top of the others," she told them, "It's a day school that meets for about six hours a day. There are four main subjects: English, Math, Science, and History. They also have more minor things like Physical Education, Music, Art, and so on. Oh, we're going to send them to a state school, so it's free. There are paid public schools, but the only rich people send their kids there. After they finish their six years of primary school though, Harry will be going to Hogwarts and we plan to send Dudley to Vernon's alma mater, Smeltings, which is paid for." Frank and Alice looked surprised, and leaned back to absorb the information. After a few seconds of silence, they glanced at each other and nodded.

"Petunia, could we confer privately for a second? Sorry," Frank requested. Petunia just smiled and stood.

"Oh no, it gives me a good excuse to go make some tea!" she laughed, heading toward the kitchen. True to her word, there came the sound of cabinets banging and the stove turning on, so the two still in the family room turned to face each other, throwing up a couple privacy wards as they did.

"I know what you're thinking," Alice said, "because I'm thinking the same thing. We should send Neville to this primary school, shouldn't we? We could spend so much more time on our careers or our own lives in general, and we will know for sure that he is getting a good education." Frank nodded, but grimaced.

"Still though, how? We know nothing about the system, and what about transportation? Logistically, it couldn't work. We can't just go ahead and do it blindly," he argued. Alice accepted it with a frown. At this point, Petunia had returned with some tea and a plate of chocolate digestives, waiting at the edge of the privacy barrier. Alice took them down with a flick of her wand, and Petunia set her things down on the coffee table in front of them. Frank opened his mouth to speak, but Petunia put up a hand to stop him.

"I know exactly what you were talking about. You want to put Neville into primary school, but you can't figure out how, right?" she said knowingly. The Longbottoms nodded, and Petunia smiled.

"Well then, it's a good thing that I knew this was coming and that I prepared a set of materials for you guys," she said, standing and grabbing a folder off of the kitchen table. Sitting again, she handed the folder over to the Longbottoms and spoke again: "In here are a few booklets explaining what primary school is, how it works, and how to enroll a child in one. It also has a map of where the primary schools are in the cities. We chose a more local school for Dudley and Harry, but you might not have that option." Alice opened the folder and took said booklet out, then tilted her head as she pulled out a thin sheaf of paper.

"What's this?" she asked, glancing them over. Petunia smiled.

"Oh, nothing. It's just a set of forms for enrollment in the school Dudley and Harry are in. Vernon and I talked last night and decided that if you wish we would happily send Neville in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon, and all you have to do is Floo him back and forth. We will be visiting the Bones family and the Lovegood family to offer this to them as well."

The Longbottom parents stared at Petunia in shock before grinning broadly. "You would do that for us?" she asked, putting her hand on Petunia's arm.

"Of course. It isn't much, especially for you guys since you're Harry's godparents. You're pretty much family," Petunia assured them, "Now, I was planning to give these to everyone in the evening, but I suppose now is as good a time as any. Let's go grab the kids and pay a visit to the Bones and Lovegood houses."

With that, the three parents stood and walked toward the parlor, where they knew the children probably were. Upon finding them and getting them suitably prepared to leave the house, they all Flooed to the Bones Residence.

Amelia Bones was in the sitting room where the fireplace was, doing some paperwork as Susan played with floating building blocks on the floor. Both of them looked up as the group of people came through the Floo. Pursing her lips, she set her work aside and stood.

"You know, Petunia, if you're going to arrive early, then you really should give me some warning," she said, "But no matter. How are you?" Amelia snapped her fingers and a house-elf appeared at her side. "Could you bring us tea, Benny?" she requested. The house-elf nodded and popped out again.

"Oh, I'm doing just fine, Amelia. May we sit?" she asked. Amelia quickly ushered them into armchairs, and Petunia sat down with a smile. Harry, Dudley, and Neville went to go play with Susan on the other side of the room.

"Now, the reason why I came was because of a little opportunity we thought you might want to take advantage of," she started, "basically, Harry and Dudley will soon be starting primary school, giving me and Vernon an idea. We would like to extend you the same offer we gave the Longbottoms." Amelia leaned forward, intrigued.

"Tell me more," she demanded. Petunia smiled and proceeded to do just that, giving her the same rundown that she had given the Longbottoms before giving her a folder of her own.

"I understand that you are working hard toward a promotion," Petunia said, "so this will give you a few extra hours each day to dedicate yourself to your work." Amelia leaned back in her chair, a distant, yet calculating, look in her eyes. Suddenly, they refocused and Amelia rocked forward in her chair.

"How good will the teachers be? I won't settle for anyone poor or inferior for little Susan," she demanded. Petunia put her hands up in a placating gesture.

"The teachers are all very much professionals. They have had years of formal training and experience. Trust me, I would never send Harry and Dudley to any kind of second rate school," Petunia said. Amelia relaxed again and looked her firmly in the eye.

"Alright, I'll consider it," she said, "Which is to say, thank you ever so much, and I apologize in advance for any trouble this may cause you." Petunia just smiled and patted her friend on the hand. Suddenly, Alice wrinkled her brow.

"Petunia, why exactly are you giving this offer to the Lovegoods now? Little Luna is a year too young, isn't she?" she asked. Petunia shrugged.

"Vernon and I figured that since they live further from any Muggle settlement than either of you, have very little working knowledge of the Muggle world, and don't usually like to interact with them, I would give them more time to choose," she explained, "If they do decide to go through with it, they can take their time learning about the Muggle world. If they choose not to, then that's that. You guys already know plenty about the Muggle world, so we thought that such precautions were not necessary." They nodded, accepting her reasoning.

After another half hour of tea drinking and pleasant conversation, Petunia decided to finish up the last leg of her trip. Madam Bones and the Longbottoms agreed to watch the kids, and Petunia went the Rookery to talk to the Lovegoods.

An hour later, Petunia returned, a pleased expression on her face. "They agreed!" she cheered. Everyone playfully applauded, and Petunia laughed. She sat back down with her friends, who were using magic to entertain the children, and watched the show of magic as well.

In September, school started. Neville and Susan both ate breakfast at their own houses before they Flooed over to the Dursley house. They went to school together and came back home together, and after an hour of playing with each other or doing their homework, they Flooed back to their respective homes. Illusion charms were used so it looked like they got picked up by their parents, so the neighbors never noticed a thing. Everything went without a hitch, and so their first year of school ended.

The next year, Luna joined them. She suffered from homesickness which manifested as spacing out and caused some problems, but the teachers were able to help her work through it. She also went straight home after school instead of playing with the rest of the kids. And so went the next year.

The four years afterward went pretty much the same way. After Neville, Harry, Susan, and Dudley all finished primary school, it was finally time for them to move on. The wizards and witches got their Hogwarts letters and Dudley got his Smeltings acceptance letter as well.

All too soon, it was time for them to leave Little Whinging. Harry's eleventh birthday rolled around, he received his letter. To everyone's surprise, Vice Headmistress McGonagall paid him a visit as well.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the Dursleys, Bones, Longbottoms, and Lovegoods were in the middle of celebrating Harry's birthday. Suddenly, there came a sharp knock upon the door. Harry, who was passing through the foyer at this time, peeked through the door-side window before hastily yanking the door open.

"Professor McGonagall?" Harry gasped, staring at the elderly witch before him, "Uh, might I ask what you're doing here?" Professor McGonagall peered down at him through her square glasses and raised an eyebrow.

"Why, it's part of my job to visit all Muggleborn and Muggle Raised wizards and witches when they get their Hogwarts letter and explain any part of the wizarding world that they might need to know about," she explained, "I know that you're quite close to a few wizarding families, so you probably know plenty already. However, I still must visit you in order to fill in any gaps in your knowledge that you might have. How did you know who I am?"

"That would be because of me," said Frank as he came up behind Harry, "It's nice to see you, Professor." Professor McGonagall looked at him and smiled, but frowned at the cup in his hand.

"That's not alcohol is it, Frank?" she asked.

"What? Oh, no, of course not. This is a child's party, it's just that Muggle soft drink, soda pop. It's a bit sweet, but the fizz is very fun," he replied, showing the woman his cup. Professor McGonagall peered inside and pursed her lips.

"Hmph, fine. Don't drink too much, though," she instructed.

"Yes, Professor," Frank sighed, rolling his eyes, "Now, come in and join the party! No one says you can't have some fun while visiting a student." McGonagall sniffed, but came in anyway.

The next couple of hours were spent in laughter and joy, and when Professor McGonagall eventually had to leave, she gave Harry a standard set of "Intro to the Wizarding World" book, as well as a little hat that said "Hogwarts' Wartiest Hog" for a birthday present.

A couple weeks later, in August, a Diagon Alley group shopping trip with the Bones, Longbottoms, and Lovegoods was arranged.

"Harry! Don't just wander off!" Petunia called after her nephew, who had gone to look at the solid gold cauldrons in Potage's Cauldron Shop, "We still need to get your robes, your wand, your Potions supplies… We've got a lot of stuff to do!" Harry huffed and returned to the group.

"Good. Now, let's do the wand next," she decided, marching toward Ollivanders. The other parents in the group just glanced at each other before shrugging and following. Might as well go along with it.

When they arrived at the shop, all of the adult wizards sort of tensed up and looked around, drawing looks of confusion from the Dursleys. "Something the matter?" Vernon asked, "Is there something you're not telling us?" Frank shook his head.

"Oh, no. The owner of this shop simply likes to surprise his customers by appearing out of nowhere. We all wish we could catch him before he catches us," he explained.

"Well, you'll have to try harder than that," a voice suddenly said. Everyone gave a start and whipped around toward the voice. There, they found a small, pale man with a knowing smirk on his face.

"Hullo Unca Ollie," chirped Luna, who seemed rather unfazed at the little fright she had just gotten.

"Now, now, little Luna, I'm not your uncle, I'm your fourth cousin thrice removed," he corrected. The girl just smiled.

"You're too old for me to call you cousin, so you're my uncle," she explained, "Or maybe I should call you Grandpa instead?" Ollivander laughed and shook his head.

"Call me whatever you want," he decided before turning toward the others, "But anyway, I still have to take care of you guys, right? Wands for these children?" The children in question nodded silently.

"Excellent. Let's start with you, shall we, Neville? May I have your hand please?" he said, holding his hand out to the blond boy before him. Neville hesitantly stepped forward and placed his hand onto the wandmaker's palm, and he shuddered a bit as a blue light flickered from his hand up to his head.

"Hmm, alright. Based on this… Oak, 10 inches, dragon heartstring, mild taper, fairly unyielding," he rattled off, spinning on his heel and marching off into the shelves behind him. Before too long, he returned with a few boxes containing wands that matched his description. Neville tested them one by one, and the third one responded wonderfully well. With that, he had his Chosen Wand.

As he walked back to the rest of the group and Susan was called up, Neville discreetly massaged his hand. "I'll never get used to that," he grumbled, "White magic is supposed to be nice and soothing, but Magimancy scans must be the exception."

Harry nodded, thinking back to the lessons that Sirius had given him on the most important types of Magicks. Magimancers were fairly rare and they couldn't easily use their magic in spells, but each and every one of them had a deeply innate sense of magic itself, allowing them to "feel" the magic of others and thus understand what kind of magic said others had. Many Magimancers went into the DMLE as crime scene investigators, since their magic was perfect for picking up traces and tracking them down. Wandmaking was a very difficult practice, so few Magimancers entered the industry; however, the vast majority of wandmakers were also Magimancers, making wandmakers a very rare commodity.

Susan ended up getting a 9 inch willow wand with medium spring, a unicorn hair core, no taper. Finally, it was Harry's turn. He stepped forward and placed his small hand into the wandmaker's warm palm. The usual blue flash occurred, but instead of shuddering like Neville and Susan did, he felt a rush of comfortable warmth. Ollivander's eyes snapped up and looked deep into Harry's emerald orbs.

"Fascinating…" he whispered, "I've never felt magic like yours. It's not warm or cold, not heavy or light, not rough or slippery, it's… all of them, and yet none of them. It's just so pure…" The whole time, he did not break eye contact with Harry. Young Harry, though, was feeling rather unnerved.

"S-sir? What do you mean?" he asked in a shaky voice. Ollivander shook his head like he was coming out of a dream and a small smile spread across his face.

"I mean that your magic is so unique, I will have to make you a custom wand," he declared. Everyone else gasped; custom wands were no small thing. The store held almost a thousand wands, with no two alike. For someone to be special enough to warrant a special wand being made just for them? That was a very uncommon event.

Ollivander seemed to not care about the implications of what he had said, and instead knocked thrice on the table next to him. With a great rumble, all of the shelves in the store sank into the ground and great work benches covered in diagrams, books, tools, and charts replaced them. Chests and boxes and barrels and jars of all kinds of wand materials dropped down from the ceiling. Within just a minute or two, the whole shop had completely changed.

Ollivander simply flipped the sign on the door to closed, cracked his knuckles, and entered the maze of benches. "Come with me, Harry," he commanded. Harry obediently followed. He glanced at the rest of the group and shrugged apologetically.

"I'm afraid this might take a while. I'd recommend that you try to find something to do for a couple hours," he suggested. Everyone looked at each other uneasily, before Vernon stepped forward.

"How about I stay here, and you guys keep going? I'm not much for shopping, and I was thinking about taking a break anyway," he said. Everyone seemed to relax slightly at that, and they slowly trooped out of the shop.

Ollivander nodded his acceptance, then led Harry to a chest full of wood. "Now, I'm sure that you've had accidental magic before," he started, "I want you to try to remember how it felt, how it moved. Now, focus on that, and try to bring it into your arm or hand. It might take a second, since you're still a child." Harry dutifully did that, thinking back and trying to focus on the energy he always felt whenever he used his magic. He slowly brought that feeling to the forefront of his mind, and as he did, a soft glow bloomed across his body. Ollivander raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything. However, as that glow started to shift visibly into his arm, and then all the way into being wholly concentrated into his hand, Ollivander couldn't stop himself from speaking.

"Extraordinary," he murmured, "Absolutely extraordinary. Having enough raw magic to cause a physical glow is already amazing enough… having the control to guide all of it into an extremity is just beyond belief." Harry opened his eyes a little and glanced at Ollivander.

"Uh, what should I do now, sir?" he asked in strained voice, "Holding it here isn't easy." Ollivander blinked owlishly at Harry before pulling himself out of his reverie.

"Ah, yes, of course. Please place your hand just above the box of wood - no more than a centimeter of distance, please - and move it back and forth until you feel something change in your magic," he instructed. Harry did as he said, slowly passing his hand over the chest until he felt a little tug on his magic. He stopped and looked at Ollivander again.

"I felt a tug, sir," he told the wandmaker.

"Good! Now, try to tug back," he said.

Harry did so, and a length of wood flew out of the chest and into his hand, surprising him into losing concentration and allowing his magic to diffuse back into his entire body. Ollivander gently plucked the wood from his loose grasp and inspected it.

"The surprises just don't stop, do they," he muttered, "This is my one and only piece of Wollemi Pine. Impossibly rare and almost extinct. It took me a long time to get this, and it's so temperamental that it refuses to be normal wand wood. You must have been destined for it." Ollivander absently told Harry a little story as he measured the length, thickness, and pliability of the wood before clamping it into a lathe.

"Alright, it's semi-yielding, 11 inches long, and a good 15 millimeters thick," he said, seemingly to himself, "I'll reduce it to 12… no 13 millimeters. Yes, that sounds good. Harry, while I carve up this wand, could you please bring that box over there to me? Thank you." Harry fetched the small metal container and set it beside Ollivander, who had gotten right to work thinning the wood slightly and carving out a hole for the core. Since he wasn't taking off much material, he quickly finished and took it off of the lathe.

"Lovely. Harry, please reach into this opening right here and pull out the first thing you find," Ollivander told him. Harry did, sticking his hand in and groping around for a few seconds before closing his fingers around a smooth, cold object. Pulling it out, he looked at what was in his hand.

"Oh! Very nice!" Ollivander gasped, "That's the horn of a chinese Qilin! Ooh, that was a devilishly difficult thing to get. Qilins live deep in the mountains and have very odd magic. This one was incredibly old and was on the edge of a process they call "Ascension" where their very soul escapes their physical body. Usually, their body disintegrates soon after Ascension, but I was able to persuade this one to allow me to have its horns. Nice guy, although he was rather pretentious. Anyway, this is just a little piece. The whole thing couldn't even fit in my store. He really was too big… Well, I guess that what happens when you live for a few thousand years." As Ollivander talked, he took the shard of horn from Harry and carefully cut off a bit, putting the little piece into a small mortar and returning the rest to the metal box where it came from. He then picked up a pestle and started crushing the horn to dust. After powdering it properly, he carefully poured a small bottle of liquid in.

"This is something called Ismanth Plasma. It's derived from lethifold blood and unicorn tears. The highly opposed forces can consume the bestial energy that comes from particularly strong cores like this and prevents it from causing backlash and damage to wielders," Ollivander explained as he magically stirred the powder-plasma mixture. Once it reached a thick, pasty consistency, he scooped it up with a silver spoon and carefully put it into the wand.

"Great, just one last thing. We'll need a magical focus," he declared, "The normal quartz could never work for something this strong." He stood and pulled a tray of rocks, gems, and crystals from a shelf nearby.

"Finding a focus is just like finding a wand wood, just with the wand in hand," Ollivander explained, handing the mostly-finished wand to Harry. He understood and started channeling his magic into his arm again. The wand started to glow, and the gems on the tray started to vibrate. Suddenly, the gems stilled, and a faint crack came from behind them. A dark red gemstone flew out of a drawer and zipped over to them before stopping above the wand, slowly revolving. Ollivander's eyes bugged out before he burst into laughter.

"Painite! Of all the gems I have, you resonated with Painite!" he laughed, "The singularly rarest gemstone in the world, and it will be for this wand! Oh, I should have known!" Ollivander couldn't help but roar with laughter. He quickly bound the painite to the tip of the wand before handing it back to Harry.

When he did, though, something truly amazing happened.

The wand shuddered from end to end and it glowed a brilliant gold color before, with a loud whoosh, it seemed to sink into his hand, leaving behind a golden symbol on his palm. It consisted of a hexagram with a dragon drawn within. When he saw this, Ollivander's face brightened.

"Well, that settles it," he cheered, "that's your wand alright. That's a phenomenon that only occurs when a wand meets its True Owner. It is now attached to your very soul, which means that if you die, it is destroyed, and if it is destroyed, you die. However, it cannot be stolen or lost, will channel your magic perfectly and without the least bit of resistance, and can amplify your innate magic. Eventually, it might even take on a bit of sentience and fight on its own. It's a very rare existence, happening only about once out of every ten thousand or so wands. I honestly never thought I'd ever witness it." Harry just stared at Ollivander, shocked.

"Well, I was always going to give you this wand for free, but I don't think I could deny you it anyway, since you're its True Owner," he sighed, "So let's go, shall we?" He hauled Harry to his feet and led him to the front of the store. Vernon, who had fallen asleep at this point, only woke up when Harry and Ollivander were right in front of him.

"Ah, ready to go?" he mumbled, before noticing that Harry wasn't holding anything. "Huh? Where's your wand?" he asked.

"Ah…" Harry said. Suddenly, as he thought of his wand, it appeared in his hand. Vernon just nodded sleepily and yawned.

"Let's go then," he said, walking toward the door. Ollivander opened it for them and ushered them out. Behind them, they heard him knock on the table again and return the store to its normal configuration. Harry glanced down at his wand, and as he thought of it entering his hand in the store, it vanished with a flash, becoming a golden symbol again. He didn't react.

Before too long, they caught up to the rest of the group, who were coming out of Flourish and Blotts carrying stacks of books. Even Luna was holding a couple novels. Petunia saw them immediately.

"Oh, hello Vernon! Hi Harry! You're finally done? Where's your wand, Harry?" she asked, waving at them. As they approached, Harry raised his hand and drew it out. Petunia nodded happily, but everyone else's eyes bugged out. They grabbed everyone and all but dragged them into Gringotts, which was right across the street.

"Good goblin sir, may I reserve a conference room for the next hour?" Frank Longbottom asked the nearest receptionist. The goblin cast a disinterested glance at him before nodding.

"Room… 8 is open right now. Go ahead," he told them. Frank thanked him and led them into the bank and to the appropriate meeting room.

As soon as they were in, they rounded on Harry.

"You're the True Owner of that wand?!" they asked, almost in unison. Vernon and Petunia looked confused, but Harry just nodded.

"Yeah. I don't really know much about what that means, though," Harry replied.

At this point, Neville piped up. "Can I try to explain?" he asked. At Harry's nod, he continued, "Imagine that wand compatibility is on a scale where an average person has a compatibility of nine to ten with their wand, and using someone else's would be a one or two. A very lucky person might hit twenty. A rare few might get thirty or forty. A True Owner, however, would be in the hundreds. That's how strong a True Owner's bond with his or her wand is." Finally, Petunia and Vernon started to understand, and looked down at Harry in surprise.

"While that was an excellent explanation, Neville," Xenophilius Lovegood said, "That's not all. There exists a process called wand tethering between a person and their wand. The basic idea is that the more you use your wand, the more of a connection you have with it. Imagine a rope, woven from threads as fine a spider's silk. That rope represents the average person's wand tether. Every time you use your wand, for example by casting a spell, another string is added to the rope. As it gets thicker, the connection gets stronger. That connection makes magic easier to cast, and makes it harder for others to use your wand.

"Now, imagine a cable woven from other ropes. That one would be many, many, many times thicker, correct? That is the connection between a True Owner and his or her wand. It grows exponentially faster than a normal connection, and there are stories of True Owners becoming so deeply connected to their wands that their wands became sentient."

Vernon and Petunia were now thoroughly shocked, and Harry was extremely pale. He shakily looked down at his wand, and almost as if in a daze, spoke to it.

"Hey, are you gonna become sentient too?" he asked. Everyone just glanced at each other, but froze when they heard a deep voice respond.

"What do you mean, become sentient?" it asked, "I already am." Harry's wand shook, and a great cloud of smoke billowed from the tip. The cloud swirled and swooped through the air before coalescing into a tall, Asian man with long, deer-like horns on his head.

"Ah, that's better. That wand is comfortable, but does gets cramped after a little while," he sighed. He looked around at the shocked faces and quirked an eyebrow.

"What? Is it the antlers?" he asked. He snapped his fingers, and the horns vanished. Seeing that they didn't move, he sighed and shrugged.

"Uh, who - who are you?" Harry asked. The man turned around and smiled at the boy.

"I'm the Qilin from inside your wand," he said, ignoring the thump of Alice and Xenophilius fainting, "I'm in my humanoid form since I figured showing up with a dragon's head, an ox's body, and a lion's tail would be a bit too dramatic. Not that drama is bad. Anyway, after I ascended, I decided to follow the my horns around until I found something better to do. You looked fun, so I decided to take you on as my master. I am named Wan Jing Lei, or Ten-Thousand Golden Thunderbolts. You can call me Bob." Harry just stared at him wordlessly. Bob, unperturbed, just smiled.

"Well, if don't need me, I'm gonna go take a nap," he said, his fingers starting to dissolve into smoke.

"Wait! Bob!" Harry called. Bob stopped dissolving.

"Yes?" he replied, smiling benignly.

"Well, if I'm your, uh, master now," he began, "What does that entail?"

"Oh nothing much," Bob said, "It's really just a technical formality. There isn't actually a bond between us beyond the bond that would have existed due to the True Ownership of the wand anyway. On your end, I'd like you to show me some fun things. The Occidental countries are so very different from my Orient. In return, I'll use my 5 thousand years of experience to help you here and there. Maybe I'll teach you some Chinese magic, maybe I'll give you advice on how to advance your magic faster. I don't care, as long as you let me have fun." Harry just nodded weakly.

"That… that doesn't sound too bad I guess…" Harry managed to say. Bob yawned.

"Well, whatever," he sighed, "Anyway, taking a physical form after so long is tiring, so I'll be taking a nap. Bye guys." With that, he dissolved back into smoke and slipped back into Harry's wand.

After a solid minute of silence, Harry finally spoke.

"Well, uh, yeah. That's that?" he said. Everyone just stared at him. Eventually, Madam Bones sighed heavily.

"This doesn't mean that you can use magic whenever you want, you know," she warned Harry. This very down-to-earth statement brought everyone out of their reverie, and many started laughing.

"Yeah, sure that's that I guess," Frank said. He cast Rennervate on the two fainted people, who then woke up in a very agitated state. After being given a mild Calming Potion and having the situation properly explained to them, the finally regained some semblance of a normal mental state. At this point, their reserved time in the meeting room was over, so they left to finish their second to last errand: buying clothes. Luna was getting tired, though, so Pandora took her back home and told Xenophilius to finish her personal errands.

As they walked into the Madam Malkin's shop, though, the Lovegoods groaned in displeasure.

"Of all people, why them?" Xenophilius complained, glancing at the only other group in the store. Harry tugged on Frank's sleeve.

"Who're they?" he asked. Frank frowned a bit.

"Those are the Malfoys," he told Harry, "Sirius should have told you about them already?"

"Yeah, I know about them," he said, nodding, "I just never knew what they looked like. Sirius said that they're wealthy and are quite powerful in current politics, but they have very murky backgrounds. There are many odd rumors surrounding them. What's made Mr. Lovegood so agitated?"

"Oh, that. Mr. Lovegood here doesn't like them because they have a lot of influence over 'The Daily Prophet' and often look down on his 'Quibbler' and such," he explained. Harry nodded his understanding and looked at the group again. They appeared to be selecting some very fancy clothes, and it looked like they had just gotten there and were planning to be there for a while yet. The tall man, who Harry assumed was the current Head of House Lucius Malfoy, noticed them and a sneer spread across his face. However, he said and did nothing.

At first Harry was a little confused, but he figured that Malfoy probably didn't want to start any trouble in front of Madam Bones, the head of the DMLE.

However, that did not mean that he could not talk to them at all. About ten minutes after Harry's group entered the store, Lucius Malfoy slowly walked over.

"Good afternoon," he greeted, his face expressionless, "How do you do?" Frank and Alice nodded to him, but said nothing. Lucius understood. Now was not the time for social exchanges. He glanced at Harry, who was up on the stool getting measured, but Harry just copied Frank and Alice's motions. Lucius nodded and returned to his group, feeling a bit disgruntled. However, he took solace in the fact that they did not flat out reject him.

When Harry's group finished up, Malfoy had just finished up as well. This time, it was young Draco Malfoy who approached.

"Hello. I am Draco Malfoy," he said. Harry subtly sized the boy up. Good clothing, excellent posture, eyes filled with arrogance; he was the archetype of a spoiled rich kid.

"Hello, Draco. I'm Neville Longbottom," Neville said, sticking his hand out. Draco shook it gracefully, then glanced at Harry and Susan.

Harry moved first, shaking Draco's hand. "Harry Potter. Nice to meet you, Draco," he said. Susan stepped forward as well, holding her own hand out.

"I'm Bones, Susan Bones. How are you, Draco?" she greeted. Draco followed etiquette and lightly kissed the back of her hand.

"I'm quite well, thank you. Might I ask what magic color you think you have?" he asked, "I think I have purple magic, since my accidental magic incidents always seemed to involve shields. Most people in my family are Purple mages, so it's likely enough."

"I'm a blue mage, just like my father," Susan said, "I never seem to get wet except for when I want to. It was apparently rather difficult to give me a bath when I was young…" Everyone laughed at that.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'm a yellow or green mage. Plants always flourish under my touch, and my grandmother is a green mage, so it's most likely green. Still, nothing is certain, you know?" Neville said.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. What about you, Harry?" he asked, turning toward said boy.

"Oh, I actually have no idea," he replied breezily, "My accidental magic was all over the place, ranging from accidentally making a book vanish to regrowing lots of hair after a bad haircut. Once, I even made a rubber ball fly across the room. Surprised me quite a bit, it did. I didn't even catch it, and it bounced off of my forehead. It doesn't fit any of the categories. It doesn't help that each of my parents and grandparents all had different colors." Draco looked surprised, but the other two already knew this and just nodded.

"Well then, I suppose we'll just have to wait for Hogwarts to find out," Draco decided. At this point, Lucius glanced at his watch and flicked a finger. A faintly lavender colored disc a few centimeters in diameter flew out of his hand and tapped against Draco's shoulder. Draco glanced back, saw his father looking back, and nodded.

"I apologize, it would appear that I must take my leave. See you on September First!" the pale boy said as he turned away. The three children went back to their own group as well, and the two groups parted ways.

Finally, it was time for the last errand of the day: finding some pets.

"What kind of animal do you want?" Madam Bones asked, "Remember, you can only bring an owl, cat, or toad. I still remember when they used to let us bring other things too… but that's not the point." Harry was the first to decide.

"I want an owl. They're useful, and I like how they can be so intelligent," he explained.

"Well, I think I want a cat," Susan said, "They're cute."

"I think I'll get a toad then. Just feels right, I guess," Neville said.

"Alright then," Madam Bones sighed, "we'll have to go to a big pet stop. Most don't sell all three." Xenophilius, who was looking through the window of Slug and Jigger's Apothecary, interjected.

"Albert's shop does. Why don't we go there?" he suggested. Madam Bones' face brightened.

"Yeah, good idea! Let's go!" she said, marching off.

Soon enough, they all crowded into Albert's shop and started to browse around. The adults passed the time talking to Albert and buying caretaking supplies for the pets.

Susan chose her cat first, and brought it to the front. The kitten was a female, gray and brown striped, Maine Coon, and she quietly mewed as she looked up at Susan. The cat seemed to understand that Susan would be her new owner, and she seemed to accept that quite happily. Susan named the cat Primus, after a feline book character in a series she liked.

Harry decided on his own owl next, bringing forward an enormous brown male Eurasian Eagle-Owl. He looked at Harry and seemed to examine him for a long time before finally hooting his acceptance. Harry decided to name it Mercury, after the Roman god of travel.

Neville picked his toad last, selecting a huge Cane Toad and taking it to the front of the store. The toad croaked loudly and peered up at Neville. After a long moment, he croaked again and hopped around on the counter. Neville named him Ronald, since the toad resembled a burger and Neville rather enjoyed Big Macs.

With that, they had all of their shopping completely done. They all chatted animatedly as they left the alley behind and each of them went back home.

September First came in no time at all, and it was time for the children to finally get to see Hogwarts.


	3. Chapter 3: Hooray! It's Hogwarts!

Hey, it's me, Magellan again! Miss me much?

Now, you've probably been wondering: "But mistah Magellan! How come you are allowed to publish this stuff? Why can you do it, but no one else?"

Well, that's simple. I'm just a really good Spacial Mage. If anyone tries to catch me, I just slip into my pocket dimension and leave them behind. Of course, they've tried to crack the lining of the reality in there to try to get me out, but, unfortunately, I am far too good at spacial manipulation for them. Really, the most that they've ever managed to do is tear a little hole in the cosmos that I patched up in no time at all. Once, though, they did manage to collapse the continuum on me by shoving the corner of another dimension into mine. It was rather dangerous, so I had to leave at that point. I didn't go to Earth though; I just popped over to this lovely little toroid shaped planet a few hundred light years away. Spent some time fixing up my pocket dimension, then made my way back.

I've also magically hidden this story from view. It was a tricky sort of business, but I essentially had to break into a few… _important_ … parts of the world and etch a few runes into some... _important_ … things. Anyway, this story is only visible to you muggles, just like how magical places are only visible to wizards and witches.

That's enough on me, though. I know what you _really_ came here for, so I'll get to it.

Harry was the first person was wake up in the Dursley household, and he was absolutely brimming with energy. He double checked his trunk, then triple checked it, and then checked it again. When he was finally satisfied that he was not missing anything, he held out his hand and summoned his wand.

As Harry studied the length of wood in his hand, he couldn't help but think about the events of the last couple of weeks regarding it.

The first thing happened over time, and was still going on. The wand, which had originally been a plain piece of wood with little decoration, had mysterious and odd symbols appear all over it, and they formed an elegant spiral wrapping around the body of the wand.

The second thing was Bob appearing at random intervals. He never seemed to come out for any real reason, and often just appeared for a few minutes, looked around, and vanished again. However, Harry did learn a great deal about him during the visits for which he stayed awhile. The first thing was that he was not living within the wand at all, but was simply magically connected to it. He also had two forms: a humanoid one, and a bestial one. Both of those forms could take on any size he wanted, but generally Bob did not like to be smaller than ten centimeters or bigger than 50 meters. His bestial form was pitch black with glowing yellow eyes and a snow white mane, and he was quite terrifying. Furthermore, Bob also possessed deep wisdom and amazing strength, but generally didn't like to do anything, preferring to "bitterly cultivate," which Harry took to mean train really hard.

The last thing was that Bob had more control and influence over the wand than Harry currently did. Although he had explained that, through Wand Tethering, Harry's control over the wand would soon overcome his own, Harry still felt a bit unhappy that, despite being the True Owner of the wand, he didn't actually have full influence over said wand.

As Harry sat on his bed and quietly pondered over these things, there came a quiet knock on his door, shaking him from his reverie.

"Yes? You can come in," he called, walking toward the door. Vernon opened the door a crack and poked his head in.

"Oh, good, you're up," he said, "We're going to leave in an hour and a half or so, so get ready, okay?" Harry nodded, and Vernon left. He glanced at Mercury's cage in the corner and saw the big owl watching him as well.

"Hey, Mercury, do you wanna come with me on the train, or do you wanna fly?" he asked the owl. Mercury hooted, ruffled his feathers, and tucked his head under his wing, clearly signalling that he didn't mind either way. Harry nodded and headed toward the bathroom to brush his teeth and prepare for the day.

After washing up and eating breakfast, it was time to Floo to Platform 9 and ¾. Dudley decided to come along since he had become quite good friends with Neville and Susan and wanted to say goodbye to them.

The Dursleys ended up being one of the first people to arrive on the platform, so Harry quickly put his name down on the compartment list to claim one of them as his before going back onto the platform.

"Well, dears, we'll miss you while you two are gone," Petunia said, smiling sadly at them.

"Oh, mum. I'm pretty sure that you'll just take off on your own for a vacation while we're not around to bother you," Dudley teased.

"Dudley! Of course I won't!"

"Sure, mum, sure. Oh, here comes Neville and his family!" Dudley waved at the approaching group of people, and Neville waved back.

"Hey, Duds! How's it going?" he called.

"Well, it's kinda sad to see you all leave. Still though, I'm not that jealous, since I'll end up learning stuff that you won't."

"Yeah, I suppose you will, huh? Oh well, who cares. We'll still be friends."

"Yeah, of course!"

Susan and her aunt came out of the Floo while the boys were talking, and the girl made her way over to them.

"Hey boys!" she laughed, "ready for Hogwarts? Or Smeltings, in your case, Dudley. Oh, right, Luna owled last night and said that she wouldn't be coming to see us off today since she needs to help her mother with a project."

"Oh? That's too bad, I wanted to return this book I borrowed," Harry sighed, pulling a thin volume entitled _Common Magical Animals_ out of his pocket. At this point, Mercury hooted to draw his attention before looking pointedly at the book, then sticking his leg out. Harry understood: he was volunteering to take the book to Luna.

"Oh, thanks Mercury. I'll give you an extra treat when you return," Harry said, taking him out of his cage and tucking the book into a leather pouch on his back. Mercury hooted again before taking off.

"You know, Mercury is pretty fast, isn't he?" Neville mused, "Luna doesn't actually live that far away from here, so he might be back before the train leaves. I mean, we still have another hour."

"Maybe so. Hey, a sickle says we'll leave before he gets back," Susan offered, a daring smile on her face.

"You're on!" Harry immediately replied.

"Aww, c'mon guys! Stop gambling!" Neville groaned, "Let's just go find a compartment and put our stuff down first. The platform's filling up a bit." They looked around, and found that Neville was right.

"I already claimed one, so we just have to lug our chests in," Harry explained, "Let's go, tally ho!" As he spoke, he picked up his big trunk with a grunt and carried it into the train. Neville copied him, and Dudley decided to play the gentleman by carrying Susan's chest for her. After finding the right compartment and settling in, Dudley went to get some money to buy snacks from the muggle side of Kings Cross Station, and the three mages started to talk about Hogwarts.

"How do you reckon they'll sort us?" Harry asked.

"Oh I don't know," Neville sighed, "My parents refuse to tell me. But, based on what I've heard from books and family friends, it'll be some sort of magical object that detects your magical core and tells you what color magic you are."

"I imagine it might be an orb," Susan mused, "It does sound mystical, doesn't it? A magical orb that tells you about your magic." Harry had to agree, it certainly did.

By now, the train was starting to fill up, and some people were having a hard time finding a place to sit, especially the Muggleborns, who didn't know anyone on the train and thus didn't know where to sit. A girl with bushy brown hair paused outside Harry's door and glanced in. Harry noticed, and so did Neville and Susan. They looked at each other, shrugged, and Susan opened the door.

"Hello there. Would you like to sit here?" she asked, beckoning the girl in.

"Oh, well, sure. Thanks!" the girl said, stepping through the door.

"Hello, I'm Harry Potter. This is Neville Longbottom, and that is Susan Bones. What's your name?" Harry asked, standing up to help her with her trunk.

"I'm Hermione Granger, a… muggleborn," she introduced, frowning a bit at the last word, "I don't like that word very much."

"Yeah, I know it sounds a bit crude," Neville said, "But there's no helping it. A long, _long_ time ago, wizards and witches were called Maggles, magical creatures were called Miggles, nonmagical creatures called Moggles, and nonmagical humans Muggles. Some of the terms were changed, others edited, and others kept the same. Maggle, for example, became the modern Mage, and nonmagical creatures are no longer called Moggles. Right now there is a group in the Wizengamot that's trying to make people drop the word 'Muggle', but they're not making much progress." Neville, who was the best versed out of all of them in wizarding history and current events, was easily able to explain all of this. Hermione was stunned.

"How do you know all of that? I didn't see it in the textbook or anything!" she gasped. Neville shrugged.

"I'm a pureblood, which means there's lots expected of me, including becoming Lord Longbottom and entering the Wizengamot. So, my grandmother makes me read a lot of books on wizarding history in order to prepare me for my future role. I also like to read the newspaper, since there's always something fun in there somewhere," he explained. Hermione nodded slowly.

"I see. Hey, might I read some of those books you're talking about? I, uh, rather like reading."

"Sure, they're all fairly common books. There ought to be copies of them in the school library, so just remind me to write them down for you." Susan interjected at this point.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we're about to leave, and Harry, your owl's not back yet!" she said, looking triumphantly at Harry. The boy frowned and looked out the window.

"Hmph. We still have five more minutes, so we don't know that for certain yet," he countered. Susan childishly stuck her tongue out at Harry, and he mirrored her.

Suddenly, there came a hoot, and Mercury descended from the air above and alit upon the edge of the window outside. He hooted again and tapped the glass, and Harry jumped to open the window.

"Good job Mercury! You just won me a sickle!" he cheered, pulling a few owl treats from his pocket. The owl hopped on his shoulder and ruffled his feathers proudly, as if to say " _Well, what did you expect? I'm me!"_

Susan just pouted before tossing a silver coin to Harry. He caught it and smiled at the girl. Hermione, however, was confused.

"Hey, how can you just toss around precious metals like that? And besides that, why are you guys still on the gold standard?" she asked.

"Oh that. I wondered the same thing once," Harry said, "Susan's aunt explained this to me. Basically, none of these coins are actually gold, silver, or bronze. They're simply enchanted to look and feel like it. The goblins, who mint these coins, possess a certain type of innate alchemy that allows them to convert any stone into a type to metal called steel shale. This steel shale of theirs can retain a little bit of magic in it, so Goblins are able to attach permanent enchantments to each piece make it look like whatever metal they want. Of course, these kinds of visual and tactile enchantments cannot change the density of the metal itself, so it's impossible to fool someone with it. So in the end, Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts are just bits of stone converted into metal and then enchanted to look like other metals." Hermione nodded rapidly and even produced a small notepad from her pocket and jotted some of the information down.

"What's that?" Susan asked, looking curiously at Hermione.

"What, this?" she replied, "Oh, I just write down any important or interesting pieces of information I come across so that I don't forget it. Right here, I wrote down the conversions between Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons. Odd numbers, they are."

"They're just auspicious numbers to the Goblins, just like how three, five, and seven are important to us wizards. That's all," Susan explained. Hermione wrote that down as well before pocketing her pad. As she did so, the train started moving, and the children were on their way to Hogwarts!

As they went along, the four of them chattered on, Hermione learning more and more pieces of trivia about the wizarding world, and the others learning about what it felt like to be a muggleborn and thrust into a brand new world. When the snack trolley came by, Harry and Neville pitched in to buy some of everything to show Hermione what wizarding candy was like, and Hermione produced some Mars bars and Maltesers to show Susan, who rarely ate sweets and didn't know much about muggle candy.

About a third of the way into the journey, Draco Malfoy paid a visit.

"Hello everyone," he said, knocking on the door, "Mind if I come in?" Harry beckoned him in, and he stepped through the doorway. It was now that he finally noticed Hermione. "Oh, it would appear that you guys are multiplying. Who might you be?" he asked. Hermione stood and stuck her hand out.

"I'm Hermione Granger," she introduced, smiling at Draco. Draco smiled back and, following pureblood etiquette, started to kiss the back of her hand.

"Ah, muggleborn," Neville warned. Draco stopped and blushed a bit.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I should have known," he muttered, turning away a bit.

"Oh, uh, are you a pureblood?" Hermione asked, equally as flustered.

"Ah, yes. I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy," he said, turning back. Hermione eyed him strangely and tilted her head.

"Aren't most purebloods racist?" she tentatively asked, "I mean, it said so in Hogwarts: a History…" Draco raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" he asked, "You're sitting in a compartment with two purebloods right now, aren't you? And what's this about Hogwarts: a History?" Hermione looked at Susan and Neville, who jokingly waved with smirks on their faces.

"Yeah, it said fourth edition, and I didn't find a fifth edition… So I thought it was the most recent one. It mentioned that blood purity is very important," she said. Draco had an expression of sudden understanding, and nodded.

"Oh, you must not know about their system," he said, "Hogwarts: a History releases a new edition only once every century. Edition four originally came out over ninety years ago. However, since such a book would become outdated so fast, they release sub-editions every ten years. Edition 4.1 came out in 1910, 4.2 in 1920, and so on. The sub-edition number isn't listed on the front though, but only on the publication information page. Don't ask me why, it's just like that.

"Anyway, it sounds like you have a copy of edition 4.4 or 4.5. That was the era of Grindelwald, and blood purity tensions were really high. It died down after a couple decades, and now the only hints that are left are the old people who don't particularly like muggleborns, but are too old to actually care." Hermione was stunned and quickly dug her book out of her trunk. After a quick look at the back cover, she indeed discovered that it was edition 4.5, and was thus 40 years out of date.

"Hey Hermione," Harry said to get her attention, "I entered a raffle for free books last week since the grand prize was a rare book about foreign magical creatures. I didn't get the book I wanted, but I did win a set of Hogwarts: a History edition 4 books. Do you want me to loan them to you? I finished 4.9 already, and I'm working on 4.8 right now." Hermione's eyes lit up.

"Oh, please, Harry! Thank you!" she gasped.

"Oh!" Draco said, "I almost forgot why I came here! Harry, when you and I parted ways in Diagon Alley, I went into Flourish and Blotts and found this." Draco handed Harry a book called _Harry Potter Adventures_. It was a common children's book that featured Harry as the protagonist and described fictional escapades.

"What about it?" Harry asked, glancing at it. Draco frowned.

"They're using your name and identity for their book without permission right? Don't you want to sue them?" Draco asked. Harry just cast a devilish smirk at him.

"Who says it's without permission?" he laughed, "Sirius and I set up a private deal with the authors and publishers: no more than 10 books written, all of them must have a clear disclaimer that they are fictional, and I personally get 10% profit. With that, I now have a steady flow of income that no one really knows about." Draco burst out laughing and tossed the book onto Harry's lap.

"That's devious! I love it!" he declared, practically clapping his hands, "I find these types of secret deals just so exciting! Ah, I wish I could talk to you more, but I must go. Bye!" With that, he slipped out of the door and headed back to his own compartment.

For the next hour, Hermione tore through her new copy of Hogwarts: a History. However, at about a third of the way through the volume, she frowned and looked up.

"Hey, guys? I keep seeing the term "house elf" in here. What is that? They seem like servants of some kind?" she asked.

"They're basically servants, yeah," Harry replied, "They're these little magical beings that are bound to either a place or a family and act as servants. They can be chefs, maids, butlers, groundskeepers, really anything you want them to be."

"I see… That sounds odd though. Do they get any compensation? Free time? Are they employees or something?" Hermione wondered, chewing her lip. Harry shook his head.

"You're misunderstanding me. The bond itself is what they need, and the cooking and cleaning and stuff is literally what they do. In the same way that a bat uses ultrasonic waves, a house elf puts stuff in order. We simply interpret it as servitude. Besides that, they are such immensely magical beings that some theories suggest that they're actually partially composed of magic itself. However, they cannot control that magic, and since magic is so fickle and unstable, they require this kind of a bond to stabilize them."

Hermione nodded slowly, saying, "I think I understand…" Going back to her book, she continued reading, seemingly mostly unfazed.

The remainder of the journey went without interruption, and when they were less than an hour away from Hogwarts, a bell chimed throughout the train, and a voice floated into everyone's ears.

" _This is Head Girl Francine Barton speaking. We will be arriving at Hogwarts in less than an hour, so please change into your uniforms now. Changing areas have been added onto every car, and will close when we arrive. Thanks in advance for your cooperation."_

Upon hearing the announcement, Harry and Neville glanced at the two girls in their compartment, then at each other, before they yanked their uniforms from their trunks and rushed out the door, mumbling about hoping to get there before the line began. Susan just pressed a button beside the door, which locked the door and rendered the glass opaque, and the two girls changed right in the compartment.

The boys eventually came back. The girls didn't want to make it easy for them though…

"Oi! Susan! Open up! We've been standing here for a clean 5 minutes, how haven't you managed to change yet?" Neville complained, knocking on the door. Harry was scowling behind him.

"No!" the girls giggled, "We're definitely not done! Back off!" Neville and Harry shared a pained glance before sighing.

"Whatever. Let's go find Draco and sit with him for a little while," Harry suggested, "They'll have to unlock the door when we arrive. We'll get our stuff then."

Once the boys finally reentered, and all four of children were now dressed in plain black robes and ready to walk into their new lives in Hogwarts. Half an hour later, the train pulled up at the train station in Hogsmeade.

Slowly, the students on the train made their way out of the train. Most of the upper years headed straight for the carriages, but when the first years started to join them, they were told that they would get to the school another way. Suddenly, an booming voice rang out across the platform.

"Firs' years! Firs' years ova here!" yelled an enormous man, who was at least three or four meters tall and sported a beard that was the size of a wild rosebush and twice as tangled. The man stumped his way up onto the platform and waved the lantern in his hand, and the first years slowly gathered toward him.

"All good? No one's left behind? Let's go then!" he declared before turning around and leading the way into the trees. As he walked, he never stopped talking.

"My name is Rubeus Hagrid, it is, an' I'm tha Groundskeeper an' tha Yellow Mage 'round these 'ere parts. I try ter keep the ground nice an' purty, so that you can have yerself a nice place ter look at. I'm gonna be putting alla yer wee tushies in some boats and giving yer eyes a gran' look at Hogwarts castle! It's an amazing sigh', that's fer sure." As he chattered on and one about what the school was like, Harry carefully paid attention, making sure he wouldn't forget anything Hagrid said.

When they rounded a bend in the forest trail, the trees suddenly thinned out and a castle blazing with lights seemed to leap out of the gloom, towering over them even from across the wide lake that separated the children from the building. Gasps rang out from the group, and everyone stopped in their tracks.

"Yeh, it's sure impressive, innit?" Hagrid said proudly, "Now c'mon, here's tha boats. Pile in." The children shook themselves out of their daze and did as they were told, climbing into the boats. Harry, Neville, Susan, and Hermione piled into one boat, and they watched Hagrid carefully clamber into an extra large boat of his own.

Once everyone was in, Hagrid looked around to confirm that they were ready before thumping the end of his umbrella on the bottom of his boat, and the whole fleet moved forward, gliding smoothly across the lake.

Within a few minutes, all of them arrived at a little boat dock below the castle. A tall, stern looking lady awaited them, and most of the children recognized her.

"Pr'fessor McGonagall!" Hagrid yelled, waving his umbrella, "I brought da firsties!" Professor McGonagall smiled goodnaturedly at the big man, and when the boats stopped in front of her, she beckoned them forward.

"Please get out of the boats and form a neat line please. I will be taking you into the Great Hall shortly, and the sooner you line up, the sooner you will get to eat," she told the crowd. Being hungry little children, they rushed to do as they were told, and a line formed in no time at all. Professor McGonagall nodded her approval and led the way up a flight of stairs and through a heavy wooden door.

They came out of the hall and entered an enormous hall. Professor McGonagall turned around and looked carefully over the students.

"Everyone through the door? Excellent," she said before flicking her wand. The door shut and then dissolved into the wall, and no sign of it was left. Professor McGonagall turned around again and started speaking again. "We are currently standing in the Main Corridor, which is, of course, attached to the Main Entrance, right over there," she said, pointing to the enormous set of doors to their left, "And there's the Central Staircase right over there-" she indicated a massive flight of stairs to their right "-which is the only non-moving staircase in the whole school. It also runs through all 8 floors, so it's quite useful for getting places quickly. Now, I'm afraid I must leave for a few minutes to set up the Sorting Ceremony, so please. Behave yourselves." She fixed all of them with a stern look before turning and walking away.

"Phew. She's scary," a kid murmured. A ripple of laughter spread through the group, before they quieted.

Suddenly, another child screamed, and everyone felt a minor surge of magic, which they recognized as accidental magic. Everyone whipped around in surprise, and saw a tall ethereal figure floating in the air, looking at the splatter of fire behind him with an unimpressed look on its face.

"Well, you certainly reacted poorly," the figure sighed, turning around, "I'm just a ghost, and all I wanted to do was to say hello. No matter." The figure flicked his wrist, and the flame sputtered out. He then floated over to a wall…

And shoved his head straight through it. This elicited a gasp from the people who weren't used to such sights, but thankfully no more accidental magic occured.

After a couple seconds, the ghost backed out of the wall, and three more ghosts came through, consisting of a man and two women.

"Ooh! Are these the new kiddies?" the shorter woman gasped, floating forward, "Oh, they're so cute!" The other woman floated closer as well and appeared to study them.

"Hmph," the new male ghost grunted, "They all look exactly the same: small and weak." The first man frowned.

"Don't be like that, Sal. People will think you're mean!" he said. No one could say for sure, but they could have sworn that he was teasing the other man.

Suddenly, Harry felt an itchy sensation in his right hand, and he realized that Bob was going to come out. Sure enough, a great plume of smoke bloomed from his hand, which streaked over to the ghosts before materializing into Bob's usual human-plus-antlers form.

"Fascinating," he gasped, "Human spirits that are fully sentient, and not only aren't evil, but are genuinely benevolent. They appear to have some sort of anchor on their soul, and not just to this plane of existence, but to this very location… I see! A strong, unfulfilled desire has caused their spirits to be unable to move on to the Netherworld. But why to a location? Ah! What's this? Yes, their qi flow seems to be directly tied to a sort of external expression, allowing such a phenomenon to occur. Their desires must have been expressed through this variety of magic, allowing their souls to take on such a form, but only in a certain environment and location!" Bob rambled on and on as he carefully studied each of the ghosts, seeming to deduce the answer to many profound questions as he went along. The ghosts stared at him, but as he spoke more and more, the taller lady seemed to become more and more excited.

"Who are you?" she finally asked, directly approaching him.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm a qilin," he said off handedly, "Some of my horn is in his wand-" he pointed at Harry "-so I was watching what was going on…" He proceeded to get into a deep discussion about what sounded like the differences in magic usage between the Western and Eastern methods, as well as the effects that these differences seemed to have on various phenomena. As they spoke, the other ghosts drifted back to the students.

"So, you have a wand spirit?" the first ghost asked, going over to Harry. The boy nodded. The ghost face, though slightly vague and misty, appeared to form a smile, laughingly saying, "How wonderful! Sal here was also a True Owner of his wand when he was alive, but he didn't have a wand spirit." Sal appeared to frown grumpily.

"Well, that's not my fault. I mean, they're terribly rare, after all. Maybe only Rowena over there could name more than ten off the top of her head. Only about one percent of all True Owners have wand spirits," he retorted. At this point, Hermione seemed like she was struck by a realization. She couldn't hold back her curiosity and spoke.

"Uh, pardon me, but… your names sound familiar. Are- are you guys the ghosts of the Founders of Hogwarts?" she asked. The first ghost turned his head to look at her, then appeared to grin.

"We certainly are. You know, I think that's the first time in fifty to sixty years, or maybe longer, that anyone has guessed our identities before entering the hall. That was pretty fast too. Usually, we are simply introduced during the feast, and I'm pretty sure the last student to guess it only managed to recognize us just before they entered the hall. What's your name, little lady?" the ghost, who they realized had to be Godric Gryffindor, asked.

"Oh, uh, I'm Hermione… Hermione Granger," she introduced, fidgeting with her hands.

"Not bad at all, little one. Keep it up, and Rowena might even take an interest in you," he said, nodding.

"Might? I'm already interested. You said your name is Hermione?" Rowena asked, floating on over. The other male ghost, who the children figured was probably Salazar, took this opportunity to chat a bit with Bob, who had come back to Harry's side and was still mumbling under his breath.

While Salazar talked with Bob and Rowena with Hermione, Harry approached Godric. "Um, excuse me sir," he timidly asked, "But what can you tell me about this school?" He knew some of its history, but the intricacies, the overt and covert dangers, all of those things would only be known by the people inside the castle itself.

"Well, where to start… Well, no starting place better than yourself," Godric decided, "Me and the three other Founders are all rare Dual Mages. It was quite the coincidence, actually, having four dual mages in the same generation, and particularly four dual mages who don't have overlapping powers. I have Red and Orange magic, Salazar over there has Green and White Magic, Rowena has Blue and Purple magic, and Helda has Yellow and Black magic. We complemented each other just right! This school was built through our combined efforts. Now, you might have noticed that we can still use a little magic. That is because of our connection with the school; its magical nature allows up to manifest our own magical powers. Of course, they're far weaker than they were back when we were alive, but they're still strong."

"About the colors, I think I should talk about the power rivalries. Right now, the Black and White, Red and Green, and Blue and Orange rivalries are strongest. There is a mild tension between Yellow and Purple, but it's not worth any real mention. Of the three strong rivalries, the Red and Green tension is the worst, followed by the Black and White, and then the Blue and Orange. As for alliances, there is the Primary Color Coalition composed of Red, Blue, and Yellow, and the Secondary Color Union composed of Green, Orange, and Purple. For ease, they're referred to as simply the Coalition and the Union. Black and White usually stay aloof, but generally Black supports the Union and White supports the Coalition.

"Now, I know I described these groups as if they were huge parts of the school, but it doesn't amount to much in the end. It's more about who you should and shouldn't ask for help with your homework than anything else. However, the tensions do exist, and bullying along the lines of Color rivalries can happen. I might even go so far as to say that it _will_ happen. The teachers are pretty good about stopping it, though. Anyway, the tables in the Great Hall are actually set up reflecting this. There are eight round tables, each one a different color. Students are encouraged to sit at any of them, but for the sake of organization, if you're a Red Mage, you must sit at the Red Table during events like Feasts. The tables are in a big circle, with Red opposite Green, Black opposite White, Blue opposite Orange, and Yellow opposite Purple. The castle itself determines this, and every time allegiances or feuds change, table positions might change accordingly. I remember once the castle just made two long tables and put them at complete opposite ends of the room. That was a very tense time… Anyway, in the middle of the hall is a floating platform where the teachers eat. Above them floats the castle's Lynchpin Crystal. Do you know what that is?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, that's the place through which all of the ambient magic in the castle is routed. It's kinda like the brain of the castle, right?" he explained. Godric smiled broadly.

"Good job on the brain analogy. Most people think that it's more of a battery or generator and don't see that it's actually intelligent," Godric praised, "About the teachers, though, there are eight Primary teachers and four Secondary teachers. The Primary teachers are: Filius Flitwick for Red Magic, Minerva McGonagall for Orange Magic, Rubeus Hagrid for Yellow Magic, Pomona Sprout for Green Magic, Severus Snape for Blue Magic, Bathsheda Babbling for Purple Magic, Poppy Pomfrey for White Magic, and Aurora Sinistra for Black Magic. The other four are Sybil Trelawney for Divination, Charity Burbage for Muggle Studies, Cuthbert Binns for Wizarding History, and Argus Filch for Order and Discipline. We have a single extra Professor position for Combat Magic, but we traditionally change the teacher from year to year. We've had Aurors, Hit Wizards, and more. It's the easiest job to get in this castle, since it's not an extremely important class."

"Wait what? Why is Combat such a minor class?" Harry asked. Godric looked at him oddly.

"Why would it be a major subject?" he asked, "This is a normal school, not a military academy. We teach children how to control their magic and how to use it well, not how to fight. The people who take Combat are the people who are aiming to be law enforcement or military in the future, and there are still many who don't take it but still become perfectly good Aurors anyway. If you like dueling, particularly the competitive variety, this class would be good too. We have a couple competitive duelers who take the class for that reason." Harry nodded his understanding, and decided that it made a lot of sense.

Professor McGonagall returned at this point, and when she saw the ghosts interacting so freely with the students, she couldn't help but feel surprised. This surprise turned into shock when she saw Bob, who still had his antlers out, amiably debating the merits of Chinese cuisine with Salazar, who was trying to convince Bob that French food was better. After a long moment, she just shook her head. She'd seen stranger things than a strange man with antlers talking with a 400 year old ghost. Besides, if Salazar approved, she didn't mind either.

"Ahem," she called, drawing everyone's attention, "The Sorting Ceremony is ready. Follow me, children." Spinning on her heel, she led the group of kids across the hall and, with a dramatic flick of her wrist, she opened the doors to the Great Hall.

As the children walked in, the whole hall quieted a little bit, everyone craning their necks to watch the new ones come in. They walked into the hall in between the Black and Purple tables and slowly approached the center, and soon whispers filled the hall.

"Ooh, aren't they so cute!" "Hey, isn't that your little brother, Percy?" "Hey! Terry! Over here!" "Merlin! Look at how pale that kid is!" "Oi John, wanna make a bet? A sickle says that he's not in White Magic!" "I'll take you up on that!" Rumors, jokes, and questions flew back and forth, and the room started to get a bit loud. When the last person finally crossed the threshold, the doors started to creak closed by themselves and everyone stopped talking. All eyes turned expectantly toward the middle of the hall.

Suddenly, a long, low hum like the ringing of an enormous bell started up. In front of their eyes, the enormous Lynchpin Crystal emitted a brilliant glow, and seemed to practically thrum with energy, releasing a profound aura of power. Beneath it, the platform that the teacher's usually sat on started to spin, and various arcane and mysterious symbols began to glow on its surface. With a bang, the platform split into eight triangles, each piece glowing a different color. The eight triangles arranged themselves in a circle, the tips pointing outward, and rotated slowly.

"Well… that's not an orb, is it?" Harry muttered. Neville snickered, and Susan glared at him.

"Let the Sorting begin!" a grand voice suddenly shouted. An old man with a long white beard seemed to appear in the center of the circle, and Harry scowled to himself.

"Dumbledore!" he grumbled. His aunt and uncle had told him all about what he had done, and he had discovered a few other problems related to the man over the last decade, putting the old geezer very securely on his bad list. However, Harry knew that he couldn't do anything yet. An old geezer he might be, but Dumbledore had power.

So, he decided to just go on with life and try to be normal, which was a plan that Harry wholeheartedly did not mind.

After a moment, Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a large scroll to start announcing names. Opening it briskly, she called out the first name.

"Abbott, Hannah!"

A blond girl slowly stepped out of the line and approached the slightly intimidating structure before her. Professor McGonagall smiled encouragingly and directed her to stand in the middle.

As soon as she stepped foot into the center of the circle, the stone triangles started moving faster, and a loud buzzing could be heard. Suddenly, the stone triangles stopped moving and slowly, oh so slowly, the yellow piece floated out and hovered over her head. Streams of light poured from it, twisting into elaborate shapes before resolving into a single word: TERRAMANCY.

Amid applause, a slightly spooked but very happy Hannah Abbott walked out of the Sorting Circle and sat down at the Yellow table. Everyone around her gave her high fives, and an older student with rather official looking badge on his chest appeared to give her some sort of speech.

Terry Boot went up next. After a little dramatic whooshing, he turned out to be a Purple Lysismage and went to the Purple table, where he was received in a way much like Hannah was. The Purple Table was right next to them, and Harry could hear some jokes being thrown at him about cutting up and breaking certain items of clothing… Harry had to hold back a snort at poor Terry's expression.

The first of Harry's group of friends to go up was Susan Bones. She did indeed end up as a Blue Mage, but actually had Cryomancy, not Aquamancy like she thought. Still, she just found it really cool and walked toward the Blue table with a smile.

Hermione Granger, their new friend from the train, was the next. She was also the first surprise, as she turned out to be a rare Psychic from the Black magic branch. Not only that, but she wielded two types of Psychic powers instead of the usual one: she had both telepathy and telekinesis. Her receival at the Black table was naturally slightly rowdier than the previous ones were.

Right after Hermione's Sorting, the pale kid who people had spotted earlier went up. After the increasingly familiar swooshing and whirling, the Black Magic stone triangle rose above his head, declaring that the boy had Noximancy, the control of shadows and darkness. There came a groan and a laugh from the people who had bet on this result, and Harry glanced over in time to see a boy throw a silver coin at another boy before all but pouting.

Neville went up a little bit later. True to expectations, he was a Green Herbimage, and even fell under the slightly less common Druid subclass. When he went to the Green table, a person wearing slightly odd robes stood to greet him. Harry learned from the murmurs of nearby tables that that person was a Druid as well.

Malfoy went up too, and was quickly sorted into the Purple class with Protegomancy. He seemed oddly happy about the fairly common classification, and was glad to simply sink into the group. Harry supposed that he might have gotten tired of being treated specially as the heir to a rich family.

Now, it was Harry's turn. In all honesty, he was rather excited. His accidental magic had never taken a consistent form, and it worried him a little. What kind of magic was so unpredictable.

Soon, he was standing in the center of the circle. The great big pieces of stone start turning, moving faster and faster. Harry waited with baited breath for the verdict. Which one would rise above the rest? Would he be a fiery Red or an icy Blue? An extraordinary White or an outstanding Black? Just as they had done before, the triangles stopped moving. Harry watched with eager anticipation. The stone that rose would determine the rest of his life.

No such stone rose.

For a long moment, nothing happened. Harry's face drained of all color, and he could feel his knees weakening. What was going on?

Suddenly, with a deep boom, all of the stones started glowing at the same time. Threads of light shot out of them and wove through the air, infinitely complex seals forming in the air. With a twist, all of them converged together to form a set of imposing letters in the air. Everyone stared, speechless, at it, until finally, Harry read it aloud.

 **ACHROMATIC!**

(Hi! This is the real life author here! I just wanted to say that I edited the earlier chapters a little to add some more info/context/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. Please glance back if you have the time! Thanks!)


	4. Chapter 4: Calm Life, Commence!

Hey everyone! It's me, Magellan, once again! I've been busy dodging all of those pesky Dendroid cops, so it took a little time for me to get this written out. Sorry, everyone!

* * *

His voice echoed in the silent hall for longer than was comfortable. _What the hell is going on?_ Everyone wondered. _Who the hell is this kid?_ They all thought. Headmaster Dumbledore was the first to recover, and he cleared his throat before speaking.

"Ah, I believe we ought to… move on. We can look into this _after_ the Sorting Ceremony finishes," he decided. McGonagall blinked a couple times, then seemed to pull herself out of her shocked daze.

"Oh, uh, yes. Potter, if you could step aside…" she said, gesturing vaguely with her scroll. Everyone came to a simultaneous realization. Harry had no table.

The castle, however, decided to fix that. A circular section of the stone beneath Harry's feet, perhaps two meters in diameter, rose out of the ground with an audible pop before forming a small round table and chair on it, both as clear as glass. The hole in the ground filled in by itself. Harry tentatively sat down in the chair, and the little platform ambled off toward the side of the room, pausing next to a large window before slowly drifting around the perimeter of the hall. The Red and Orange table, who Harry was currently floating past, kept sneaking glances at him. Harry was rather uncomfortable, but tried to keep his attention on the Sorting in the middle of the room.

The last few Sortings were very ordinary. The most dramatic thing that occured was Ronald Weasley turning out to be a rare Spaciamage, which was unlike most of the rest of his family, who usually hosted Pyromancy. A boy at the Red table, who was probably Ronald's brother if his hair was anything to go by, cracked a joke about "finally knowing where all that food goes." Ronald flushed a bit, but he received a nice warm welcome from the Black table and forgot about the jibe easily enough.

Just as the last couple people were getting Sorted, the four ghosts of the Founders drifted up to him. Harry glanced up at them and was surprised to find that they were smiling. He'd half expected them to be frowning, either in distaste or in curiosity.

"Don't worry, kid. Nothing's wrong," Salazar murmured. His calm and detached voice somehow soothed him more that Harry suspected Godric's energetic voice could have, and he managed to smile back. A puff of smoke drifted out of his wand and formed into a 20 centimeter tall Bob, who waved up at Harry.

"Hey! Harry! Don't worry about it!" he called, "I've been watching, and I'm actually kinda happy that you haven't any kind of specific element! It makes it easier for me to teach you some of the Oriental Magic that I know." Harry cheered up a little, and the ghosts made noises of interest.

"Well! You're so small!" Hufflepuff cooed, leaning down to peer closely at Bob.

"Hey! I'm not small! I'm fun sized!" he protested. Harry snorted before watching the last person, one Blaise Zabini, get sorted into White Magic as a Healer.

"The last student has been sorted!" Dumbledore said once Blaise had made his way over to the White table. As soon as the words left his mouth, he threw his arms up into the air dramatically, and the eight stone triangles rose up in response. Dumbledore flicked his wrists and the stones swirled together into a normal stone platform, though they retained their eldritch glow.

"Ooh, time to eat!" Godric murmured, delighted. Salazar rolled his eyes.

"You can't even eat anything, and yet you still get so excited for food," he grumbled, "You'd think that several centuries of being a ghost would have cured you of your inanely excessive love for food." Godric seemed to pout and, with a _humph_ , drifted a couple meters away.

However, Godric was correct. It was indeed time for the feast to begin. Rowena approached and gently laid an ethereal hand upon Harry's shoulder.

"Go ahead, step off of the platform and go join your friends. You can sit anywhere you'd like," she told him. Harry nodded, a peculiar anxiety welling up inside of him. He slowly stood up, the platform drifting down to the ground, and stepped off. The little platform simply melted away into the floor.

Harry stood there nervously shifting his weight back and forth for a few seconds before deciding that the Green table, which he was closest to, would be the best choice for him. Neville had apparently spotted him by now and was waving at him, so Harry scampered on over and slipped into the seat beside him.

"Well! You certainly put on an exciting show!" Neville joked. Harry rolled his eyes and frowned.

The people around them, however, thought it was _very_ funny. Everyone nearby leaned over and threw question after question at him. Harry tried his best to answer.

 _"What does Achromatic even mean?"_

"Uh… I think it means colorless."

 _"Are you allowed to sit here?"_

"Well, no one told me I couldn't, and no one's coming over to do so, so I think I'm fine."

 _"What does your magic do?"_

"Beats me. I suppose I'll have to figure it out."

The impromptu interview dragged on until Headmaster Dumbledore stood up on the Teacher's Platform to speak.

"Good evening, and welcome to you all!" he said. Harry was slightly surprised at how loud Dumbledore's voice was, then realized he must have magically amplified it.

"Hogwarts was, as many of you know, founded in the year 990 AD," Dumbledore began, "That means that this year is the 1000th year that this school has stood and welcomed bright young wizards and witches into its halls." At this point, the hall erupted into cheers and applause. Dumbledore allowed it to continue for a moment before he raised his hand for quiet and continued,

"Yes, a full millenium. In celebration of this auspicious event, we have planned ten events, one in each month. These events will not have an age restriction, so we invite everyone to participate!" A ripple went through the crowd. Harry tapped on the shoulder of the boy sitting next to him.

"Hey, what does he mean by age restriction? Are special events usually only for upperclassmen or something?" Harry asked.

"Not exactly. It's more like event participation is _affected_ by your age," the boy explained, "For example, if we host a dance, younger kids usually must leave earlier than older kids. Or like how the Combat class organized a small dueling tournament last year. They had to separate age groups, or else it would be unfair. How could a first year beat a seventh year, you know?" Harry nodded his understanding. After all, there were seven years here in Hogwarts, not the usual three or four in a Muggle high school. He realized Dumbledore had started speaking again, and turned his attention back to the speech.

"All that's left are the usual term announcements. First, here's this year's Combat magic teacher, Mister Quirinus Quirrell." A thin man wearing a turban stood up and bowed slightly. The students politely applauded.

"Second, I would like to remind everyone that the Forbidden Forest is called _Forbidden_ for a reason. Entering is dangerous." At this point, he appeared to glance briefly at the Red table. Harry tapped on the same boy's shoulder again. This time, Harry didn't need to ask any question.

"Yes, it is dangerous in there, but that's not the only reason we can't go in," he explained, "There's supposed to be rare plants and endangered species in there, and random people tramping through isn't exactly great for delicate magical plants and animals. Not only that, but it's supposedly home to the last Acromantula colony and one of only two Centaur tribes here in England. Of course, I don't know anything for sure. Anyway, some people are occasionally allowed to enter. Your druid friend here might be allowed to enter in seventh year, but only after lots of forms or waivers and only under strict supervision." Dumbledore was still speaking, and Harry tuned back in.

"Lastly, I have a few general announcements. First, our Mr. Filch would like to remind you all that magic may not be performed in the halls, no matter how amusing a spell may be, as it can be dangerous to the people and the castle itself. Second, Quidditch tryouts will be held in the last week of the month. If you are interested, please contact Madam Hootch. Third, and finally, class schedules will be distributed on Wednesday, and classes will begin on Thursday. That is all. Now, let the feast begin!"

Everyone cheered as all kinds of sumptuous foods appeared on the tables. Slabs of meat, pots of soup, plates of bread, even a few things he hadn't seen before, all kinds of excellent fare filled the surface. Harry reached over, snagged a couple rolls and a thick pork chop, and chowed down. However, his eating time was far from peaceful.

Now that the announcements had ended, Harry once again was bombarded with questions. He did his best to answer, but many things he simply did not know. However, he apparently was able to satisfy enough people for them to eventually taper off.

After chatting with Neville for a few minutes, he decided that, since he wasn't bound to a single table like everyone else, he should probably go around and meet the other people in his year, starting with the Green Table where he already was.

Over the next half hour, he made his way around the tables, meeting everyone else in his year. (AN: There are almost 40 people in his year, so forgive me if I don't name them all. If you really want to know, DM me and I'll send you the chart I made.) There weren't as many as he expected, since the Primary school he had attended had over twice as many people in his year, but he decided that this just made it easier to socialize. Before long, he made it back to the Green table and settled down next to Neville again.

Not long afterward, the food vanished from the plates, and dessert appeared. Pies, tarts, ice cream, fresh fruit, and more replaced the food from before. Harry happily munched on the food, enjoying the sweet and savory pies and cakes.

After dessert ended, the Professors descended from the platform and Dumbledore spoke again, "Now that we have eaten and drunken our fill, it is time to begin the last and most important event of the night: the Attunement.

"Now, I understand if all of you are confused. Allow me to explain. The Attunement is the most sacred ritual of this school, where you use the Sorting Stones to call upon the magic of your predecessors to help you comprehend the nature of your magic. Begun by the Founders of our school, it provides unparalleled assistance in beginning your education as responsible and capable mages." As he finished speaking, he flicked his wrist. Behind him, the platform whirled and split up into eight stones once again. This time, they turned crystalline and glowed brightly, a mesmerizing swirl of magical energy filling them. With a swoosh, they floated out of the center of the room.

The Red Magic stone stopped in front of the Red Magic table, the Orange stone in front of the Orange table, the Yellow in front of the Yellow, and so on. Everyone was so caught up in the fancy display of power that no one realize that Harry's seat had silently broken off of the Green table and started to drift toward the middle of the room.

"New students, please lay your hands on the stone before you," Dumbledore instructed. The children obeyed, touching the stone before them. Dumbledore continued, "Good. Now, just relax and feel deep within you for your magic, the energetic core that is within you. Draw it forth. Try to pull it into your arm, then _push_ it out, _extend_ it past your hand and into the stone." Around the room, the thin arms of the children began to glow a bit, and suddenly a round of gasps rang out.

"Yes, do you feel that?" the Headmaster said, "That feeling inside the stone is the quintessence energy of your type of magic. Focus on it. You will learn a great deal about your magic from this. Be careful, though. You cannot stay connected for too long, otherwise it might start to damage your magical core. Once you feel a little bit of pressure, please withdraw."

Meanwhile, Harry had reached the center of the room and was now floating several meters above the ground, right next to the Lynchpin Crystal, a fact that people had finally noticed. Minerva started to approach, but stopped when the ghost of Godric raised one hand and shook his head. The ghost of Godric proceeded to drift up behind Harry and silently gestured for him to touch the huge Crystal.

Harry did so, carefully placing a hand on the warm, faintly vibrating surface of the Lynchpin Crystal. Remembering what Dumbledore had described, he was reminded of doing something similar back when he was working with Ollivanders to build his wand, and so he reached deep within and pulled his magic forward with relative ease, pushing it slowly into the Crystal floating in front of him.

As soon as he entered the Crystal, he felt like he had fallen into a raging river. The powerful and swift magical energy roiling within the Lynchpin Crystal practically tried to drag his magic into itself. Harry instinctively pulled back on his magic, but as he yanked backward, he could feel something like needles jabbing into his thread of magic, embedding themselves in and seeming to merge. Harry felt a sort of _click_ in the back of his mind as the "needles" melded into his magic, and he realized with a start that he had suddenly gained a level of comprehension of what exactly his Achromatic Magimancy was.

While he was distracted, though, his magic was tugged back into the whirlpool of energy in the Crystal, and he had to pull back again, causing more "needles" to dig in. Once again, he felt his understanding of the magic increase again. This time, though, he did not let his magic get swept away again. He simply held it still, letting the magic flow around it. He carefully observed the magic as it went, trying to not just understand how to use the magic, but what the magic really was.

Eventually, he started to feel a bit strained and tired, so he pulled his magic back, out of the Crystal. Leaning back in his chair with a sigh, he looked around and watched as others exited their crystals as well, blinking awake one by one. He did notice, however, that he was one of the last ones to "exit."

As he was looking around, his seat slowly drifted back to the ground, and Harry stumbled to his feet. Quietly, he scampered over to the nearest table and found a random spot.

"Excellent job, children. Now, to bed everyone!" Dumbledore declared, "First years, please follow the crowd. The seventh years will explain how the housing system works. Good night, students!" There was a swell of noise as everyone stood up and started to make their way out of the Great Hall. Harry slipped into the crowd and found Susan.

"Hey Harry!" she said, "You must have had quite the night, huh?" Harry just smiled and shrugged.

"Yeah, you could say that. I mean, I still don't really know what's going on, so…" he shrugged and shook his head. Susan elbowed him and nodded toward the front of the group, and Harry suddenly realized that the upperclassmen were talking.

"Hey kids, welcome to Hogwarts castle, your home away from home for the rest of your childhood!" a guy said, "I'm the Head Boy, and this is the Head Girl. That means that we had and still have the best disciplinary records and best grades of our entire year group, so if we say something, please, listen to us. We have your best interests in mind. Anyway, we're headed toward the Dormitory Towers right now. For the sake of efficiency, we're going to explain how the living situation works as we walk."

The girl took over, saying, "The first place you will see is the student commons. It's a big room full of chairs and tables and books, and it's just the general use space for all of us. You can study, hang out, play games; you can do anything that doesn't bother anyone around you an undue amount."

"As for sleeping arrangements, there's a boys tower and a girls tower," the boy said, "They're on opposite ends of the commons and labeled clearly "Wizards" and "Witches" so mix-ups are pretty much impossible." At this point, the boy looked sternly at them before continuing, "Trying to go to the side that you're not supposed to absolutely will not work. There are very strong wards, and if you're a guy trying to get into the girl side or a girl trying to get into the guy side, you will be sent bodily flying across to the correct door. I was in the commons when someone tried to sneak into the wrong side, and let me just say: as funny as it is to watch people catapult over your heads, it certainly wouldn't be fun being the one getting launched."

At this point, the girl interrupted the boy to say that they were getting close to the dormitory. The boy wrapped up with a quick summary of his explanation, then turned around. Pointing at an imposing facade of the Hogwarts Logo standing at the end of the hall, he said, a sort of pride in his voice, "That's the door to the dorms. Even though I've been here for years, I'm still stunned every time I walk in." He paused for a long moment. "This will be my last year staying there." The girl next to him shoved him lightly.

"Stop it with that depressing talk and let the kids in. It's getting late, and they need sleep," she said, glancing over her shoulder at the people standing behind her. Her eyes stopped on the First Years and she flashed a smile. Turning back around, she and the boy stepped up to the facade and stretched out their hands, laying their palms on the big "H" carved into the center.

"Gracious Hogwarts, your charges have returned for yet another year. I beseech you, open your doors and let us seek rest and shelter within your walls," the two said, blushing a bit as they slowly and slightly awkwardly spoke the dramatic words. However, everyone forgot about it when the facade started to sink into the wall, flashing with mystically multicolored lights as it did so. Suddenly, with an impressive rumble, the whole wall crumbled away, revealing a beautiful golden arch and a set of polished oaken doors.

"I'll never get over how that looks," the boy remarked. Walking to the middle of the door, he spun on his heel and faced the crowd again. "Now, I know that most of you have heard this spiel many times before, but our wonderful new First Years have not, so bear with me," he called. Once everyone nodded, he continued, "Anyway, let's start with some background. That wall isn't just any wall. It's the Wall of Sanctuary. If you are inside of those doors, they will automatically prevent anyone who means you significant harm from entering. They are the second strongest piece of defensive magic we have in the school, the number one strongest being the magical will of the school itself. Right now, it's in its ward form, which is how it usually stays. The physical form, which we like to call the Brick, is extra strong, and it only gets activated during the summer break and under very dangerous situations. The little ceremony we did has to be performed by us; the magical signatures that it recognizes and accepts are changed to those of the Head Boy and Head Girl every year. Now, I love magical history and could spend the next hour just talking about the nuances of this wall and how it's been used over the years, but I get that you're tired and will probably fall asleep on the floor, so I'll just leave it at that." Once he finished his final speech, he turned and pulled the doors open with a dramatic swoosh. Stepping aside, he silently beckoned for the children to go in.

As the group tentatively stepped over the threshold, everyone couldn't help but to stop in their tracks. If it weren't for the experienced sixth and seventh years being much less shocked and thus able to help keep the group moving, there might have been a sort of traffic jam for a long time.

"It- it didn't look like this last year!" a second year burst out. A seventh year laughed.

"Happens every year," she sighed, "Yeah, the castle doesn't like to stay stagnant, so it changes up the dorms every year. The general layout stays the same, but the overall décor changes annually. Allegedly, the designs repeat once every couple centuries, but it's doubtful. Hogwarts is a very creative architect."

Looking around, everyone had to agree. Harry was particularly transfixed by the dazzling array of mystical chandeliers floating above their heads; spiral shaped crystals glowed from within as they slowly floated through the air, casting a warm light on everyone. To the left side of the oval room was a door emblazoned with the Hogwarts logo and the word "WIZARDS." Another door was on the right side, though this one said "WITCHES." Just as the Head Boy said, it would be nigh impossible to get the two doors mixed up. On the far wall was a line of windows, the Black Lake glittering faintly from beyond the glass panes.

The floor was not empty, of course. There were couches and armchairs and loveseats arranged around coffee tables scattered across the carpeted ground. Bookshelves lined the walls, each labeled with a different category of magic. One set of shelves was filled with school supplies instead, pots of ink and stacks of parchment neatly positioned on each shelf. In the center of the room was a depression in the ground, and in the pit crackled a merry fire. A few armchairs surrounded the fireplace, and the worn fabric on them spoke of their comfort and popularity.

"Okay, enough gawking. You'll be spending the next ten months here, so you will have plenty of time to look around later. Go to bed now," the Head Girl said, gesturing toward the doors on each side of the room. No one argued, and everyone obediently turned and headed toward the doors.

Harry was no exception. He found Neville and walked beside him toward the door for guys. "I wonder how they're gonna split us up?" Harry remarked, glancing at the people around him. There were a lot, and even with magic, it would be unreasonable to put them all in the same area to sleep.

Another boy nearby answered. "It's simple. Girls and boys aren't separated only by which side of the student commons they are on. As the Head Boy said earlier, we each get an entire tower to ourselves. Each tower has eight floors, each floor assigned to a year level, and it's all connected by a modified Floo. The ground floor is a common room exclusive to that gender, the first floor is for first years, the second floor for second years, and so on.

"The rooms are arranged in a circle; some kind of space magic expansion charm makes sure that each floor is big enough for everyone, and that everyone has the same sized room. It's great if you have lots of people in your year, but your room doesn't get any bigger if there are fewer people, so don't try getting each other kicked out in the interest of fitting more brooms in the corner."

"Wicked," Harry responded, his eyes sparkling, "Magic sure is convenient." The boy just laughed. Harry's attention was soon drawn away, since the door they were heading toward had suddenly grown into an enormous arch. It wasn't hard to see why. If a few hundred boys had to go single file through a door, then it would be past midnight before the people at the back of the line got to even glimpse the common room, let alone go to bed. Harry glanced over his shoulder and discovered that the girls' door had done the same. However, there was a mysterious shimmering that prevented him from seeing what was on the other side of the arch. _Probably for the best_ , Harry thought to himself.

Ten minutes later, the last few people shuffled through the archway, and the door closed up by itself. Harry and Neville had already gotten through and came across Draco Malfoy crouched next to a couch.

"Is the upholstery not up to your standards, Draco?" Harry asked. The blond boy glanced up at him and snorted.

"Shut it, Potter," he shot back, "I'm looking for something. My father said that Theo's father once convinced his cousin's ex-boyfriend to carve curse words under this couch, and that if we can find proof, he'd give me a Nimbus for Christmas." Harry blinked slowly, then burst out laughing.

"Merlin! I know what you're talking about!" Harry said, crouching down next to Draco, "Was it Marlene Nott's ex? Back in '77?" Draco's head whipped around. After a second, he nodded slowly.

"Yes, why? How do you know that?" he asked. Neville crouched down too, interested in where this was going.

"Sirius told me the whole story. He was in sixth year when it happened, and apparently Marlene Nott got into a huge fight with her boyfriend, some bloke called Phineas Grage. Phineas said something stupid, and Marlene blew up, hexing him until he ran in here for safety. Sirius followed him in and found Theodore Senior standing over Phineas, who sitting on this very couch. Theodore Senior convinced Phineas to carve Marlene's big blowup into this couch to 'immortalize it as a warning to future generations.' Phineas, not being the brightest, thought it was a great idea, so he tipped the couch over and used burning charms—he was a Pyromancer—to write down the whole thing. He was just about to put the couch back down when the Head Boy came in. Merlin, Sirius said it was horrible to even be in the room. The Head Boy had a horrid temper, absolutely tore Phineas to shreds. However, you can't just fix burnt wood with a Reparo, so the only thing he could do was cover the whole thing with a glamour to look like plain wood."

Draco and Neville stared at him for a long moment. "Really?" Draco whispered, "It's actually there? The story sounded so fake, I didn't dare believe it."

"I mean, Sirius told me the story years ago, so some of the details might be wrong, but as long as Sirius wasn't lying, then yeah, it's here," he replied, "The only problem now is to figure out how to remove the illusion and obtain this 'evidence.'"

"I'll write my father a letter and tell him all this. Maybe he'll have a solution. At this rate, you'll earn me a new broom by the time I get home for Christmas Hols," Draco said, excitement filling his voice.

"Have fun with that. I'm going to go to bed now," Harry said, standing and looking over at the oversized fireplace off to the side of the room. It was full of the Floo-green flames, and people periodically hopped in and disappeared in a flicker of light. As Harry and Neville got closer, they saw a row of tiles marked with roman numerals going from "I" to "VII". In front of those tiles lay a pair of larger tiles, one marked "N" and the other marked "H". Boys were stepping on a tile, which caused the fire to flicker slightly, then stepping into the flames and promptly getting whisked away. Harry figured it out easily enough; the numbered tiles corresponded to the floor that you wanted to go to. Harry watched as a group of three boys stepped into the fire, not even breaking conversation, and vanished. He glanced over and Neville, who made eye contact with him and nodded, and the two boys stepped forward together. Harry carefully stepped onto the "I" tile and then the two boys walked into the flames.

As soon as they entered the flames, Harry saw a green flurry of light before his eyes, then felt a vague squeeze and then a falling sensation. Suddenly, he felt his feet hit something solid and he toppled over. He scrambled to his feet and wiped some soot off of his glasses before looking around. Behind him was a fireplace, which he supposed he had come out of, and in front of him was a small common room. There were a few study nooks against one wall and bookshelves against another wall. The other wall had nine doors on it, each labeled with a different color. The ninth one was labeled "Achromatic."

Neville had tumbled out with Harry and was slowly standing up, rubbing his knee and frowning.

"I sure hope I get better at that. If I flop on the floor every night for the next seven years, I'm gonna be limping for the rest of my life," he grumbled. Looking around, he took in the sight of the simple common room and the nine doors on the other side of the room.

"Well, this is pretty much what I expected," Harry remarked, still trying to dust the ash and soot off of his shoulders. Suddenly, the fire behind him flared, and he jumped to the side in surprise. Out of it tumbled another boy, but he was able to land smoothly on his feet. As he straightened up, Harry recognized him as the Head Boy. The Head Boy turned and raised an eyebrow at the sight of Harry and Neville.

"Oh, you two beat me up here?" he said, smiling benignly, "Well, that's jolly good, I'll practice my little spiel to you guys before the others come." He tilted his head for a moment, then nodded.

"Alright, first things first. As you just experienced, we use a Floo system to move from floor to floor. The main common room can go to every floor. There are two special tiles as well: the N and the H. The N goes to the infirmary, and the H goes to the Headmaster's room. The H tile, however, does not allow full body transportation, it only allows a Floo Call, or else people could just jump into the Headmaster's study willy nilly. The two special tiles are on every floor, but you cannot go from one dorm floor straight to another. You have to use the C tile to return to the common room to visit your friends in other years."

He gestured at the floor, where there were the three tiles he mentioned. He then pointed at a flower tile on the wall above the fireplace. "Now, since the downside of the Floo is that it leaves you a fair bit dusty, we have a mechanism right here to clean you off. Just tap this tile with your wand and you will be cleaned up faster than you can blink." The head boy eyed the two boys and laughed a little. "I see you two didn't know that. Here, let me clean you up," he offered, flicking his wrist. A gust of wind blew past them, collecting all of the soot into a blurry cloud and sweeping it into the fireplace.

"Now, let's move on to the room arrangements. As you probably have noticed, there are a set of eight—uh, _nine_ doors over there," he said as he glanced over at Harry and smiled a little, "and behind each door is a hallway with doors on both sides. Each one will be labeled with your name. The bedrooms are all the same: 5 by 6 meters. They're nice and roomy, but that's because they have a lot of stuff in them. You have your bed, armoire, and desk of course, but each of you will also have a basic potion station in the corner and bookshelves with some common reference books in another. I'll talk more about that potion station later, since there are special rules surrounding it."

"Anyway, in the hall there will be one door that will be bigger than the others. That one is the bathroom. You share it with the others in your hall, so don't spread out too much or anything. No one wants to see your boxers lying in the middle of the floor," he deadpanned the last part, and Harry made eye contact with Neville before giggling a little.

"Last, we have some general rules. Most of them are common sense, like don't steal stuff from each other and don't break anything. There's also stuff for the sake of public order, like how you can only go into halls that aren't your color if you are invited. The full rules will be posted on the announcement board, which will be on that wall over there. You need to talk to that girl in the flower garden portrait in order to see it, or you can just ask her for the latest news. She's very kind, so don't be afraid to talk to her. She can sometimes help you with your homework too," he said. The girl in the portrait waved at them, and Harry waved back.

The Head Boy kept going, "I will need to point out that we have three very important core rules. First, do not practice any spells alone. Even if it seems harmless, it can cause a lot of problems if it goes poorly. I know someone who misfired their Levitation charm, lifted their bed off the ground, then accidently dropped it on their foot. They spent a good week in the Hospital wing recovering from the broken bones.

"Second, do not make any potions higher than Grade D danger level in your room. Professor Snape should explain the danger levels on the first day of class, but it's also in the back of your Potions textbook. The reason for this is actually partly legal based. By law, you cannot brew a potion above Grade D danger level alone unless you have an OWL in the subject. Even then, you still have to be careful.

"The third and most important rule, however, is also the simplest rule. Never, and I mean NEVER try to hurt the people around you. Your wands are dangerous to say the least, and magic is very volatile. Just pointing your wand at another person with the intent of harm can injure them badly." He gave the two boys a very serious stare, and Harry felt a chill run down his spine. This was definitely a serious matter.

"Anyway, that's really the end of my orientation thing. Go to bed then, shoo. I need to wait for the others to come, but you two don't have to," he said, waving the two boys off. Harry and Neville hopped off the couch and scurried away. As they went, they heard a thump and a grunt, and then a disgruntled Irish boy muttering curses under his breath. Harry snorted when he heard the Head Boy clear his throat and the responding gasp from the boy. He glanced at Neville to see what he thought, but the boy was in the middle of a massive yawn, so Harry just smiled. He said good night to his friend and opened the door to the Achromatic section. It was pretty much what he expected. One plain door with his name on it, and a larger door next to it, which probably led to the bathroom.

Shrugging, he walked into his room and yawned. The day of excitement had really taken a lot of energy out of him, and he really wanted to sleep. However, the excitement was far from over.


End file.
